Are we about to repeat history?’: Martial law’s traumatic legacy in South Korea

Koh Jae-hak can still vividly remember when he saw soldiers gunning down a group of young women in cold blood.
It was April 1960. Students had launched protests calling for the resignation of the dictatorial president Syngman Rhee. Mr Koh was working in a government building when he looked out of the window and saw protesters clashing with police.
“There were demonstrations from various universities, and they all gathered in front… that’s when shots were fired,” the 87-year-old said. Days later, martial law was declared.
South Korea is widely considered a peaceful beacon of democracy in Asia, but that wasn’t always the case. This is a country that saw 16 bouts of martial law during its first four decades ruled largely by dictators.
It is why democracy is now deeply treasured by South Koreans as a hard-won right. It is also why President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law this week – the first to happen in 45 years and during democratic rule – was particularly triggering and prompted such a visceral response.
Almost immediately, lawmakers jumped out of bed and rushed to the national assembly, clambering over fences to reverse martial law.
Hundreds of ordinary citizens gathered to hold back troops who had been ordered to throw out MPs.
Some soldiers, apparently unwilling to carry out their orders, reportedly dragged their feet in clearing the crowd and entering the building.

1:05
South Korea: How two hours of martial law unfolded
When Yoon declared martial law on Tuesday night, he said it was necessary to get rid of “pro-North anti-state” forces. Initially, it caused confusion with some South Koreans who believed there was a genuine threat from the North.
But as they continued watching Yoon’s televised announcement, many grew sceptical. He gave no evidence of such forces at work, nor explained who they were. As Yoon had previously used similar language to describe the opposition that had been stymying his reforms, the public concluded he was actually trying to crush his political foes.
Previous periods of martial law had also been justified by leaders as necessary to stabilise the country, and sometimes stamp out what they alleged were communist subversives planted by North Korea.
They curtailed freedom of press and freedom of movement. Night curfews and arrests were common.
Violent clashes sometimes took place, most indelibly in 1980, when then President Chun Doo-hwan extended martial law to deal with student protesters calling for democracy in the southern city of Gwangju. A brutal military crackdown was launched, and it has since been labelled a massacre – while the official death toll is 193, some experts believe hundreds more died.