South Korea’s parliament has vetoed the late-night martial law declaration by President Yoon Suk Yeoul, although it remains unclear whether he will abide the ruling. The Ministry of National Defense will reportedly continue enforcing martial law until Yoon gives separate instructions, according to Korean news channel YTN.
On Tuesday, Yoon said he had taken the emergency step to “safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements.” The surprise announcement sent shockwaves through the country; South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party and members of Yoon’s own People’s Power Party immediately condemned the declaration. Martial law has not been imposed in South Korea since the 1980s.
After the declaration, police barricades were erected outside the country’s National Assembly, briefly restricting lawmakers’s access to parliament, according to local reports. Armored vehicles reportedly continued patrolling Seoul early Wednesday morning local time.
Yoon has struggled to push his agenda through the opposition-controlled parliament, and in his address Tuesday, he cited the Democratic Party’s rejection of a government budget plan and a motion to impeach the country’s top prosecutors, Reuters reported.