The crisis in South Korea: President accepts resignation of defense minister who proposed martial law as the controversy continues
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who proposed declaring martial law in the country.
This came according to a statement issued by the presidential office, according to what was reported by the South Korean Yonhap News Agency, on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the Korean president declared martial law throughout the country in a television interview, with the aim of eliminating pro-North Korean forces and preserving the country’s freedom and constitutional order, and accused the opposition of engaging in anti-state activities.
Following the announcement, Parliament held an emergency session during which it voted to abolish martial law, and the office of the Speaker of Parliament issued a statement announcing its abolition after the vote.
Thousands of citizens gathered around the parliament building in the capital, Seoul, to protest the imposition of martial law, and the country’s president announced hours later that he had backed down from his move.
Martial law is a set of exceptional rules and measures that a state resorts to under emergency circumstances that allow it to temporarily suspend all or some of the laws in force in it, to ward off the dangers to which the country is exposed.
