So apparently in the past couple of hours, South Korea's Prime Minister declared martial law. Then enough members of parliament managed to get into the parliament building and take a vote to overturn it.
I think?
https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-yoon-martial-law-997c22ac93f6a9bece68454597e577c1
Story will surely continue to unfold rapidly from here...
Current mood-
Yeah just saw that, seems the President (not PM, SK has a US-style presidency) spontaneously declared martial law in response to some made-up threat. He was in a "lame duck" phase, having been voted out already. Perhaps he's not interested in a peaceful transfer of power...
This post has received too many downvotes to be displayed.
A prelude of what's to come here?
MiniDave said:This post has received too many downvotes to be displayed.
Please, lets not. We can have a civil discussion about S Korea without breaking the rules on politics.
Only warning.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
This is mostly what I'm seeing online about this.
In short, scandal-ridden lame duck who can't get anything through parliament goes for the nuclear option. I very much doubt this will stand for very long, given the public and opposition outcry.
In reply to Mr_Asa :
Shoot, my little Nissan thread got shutdown due to a political turn yesterday.
Yup, looks like the military is already withdrawing from the Parliament area. Yoon has no choice but to accept the National Assembly's decision and withdraw the order, or resign immediately.
Some additional context- Yoon is wildly unpopular in his own country, has already been voted out of office, and is about to be investigated for numerous scandals and crimes, including the alleged assassination of a political counterpart. This feels like it was a desperation hail mary, and it's scary that it almost worked for a bit... also, while the South Korean Government is considered a 'democracy', it definitely has some monarchical/oligarchical undertones built into it through a long history of corruption and political warfare.
What a clusterbleep.
I normally go to https://www.bbc.com/
or listen to BBC World Service for pretty fair news discussions ,
The PM / oops the President declared martial law at 11PM local time , then a couple hours later parliament voted against martial law.
We will see what the morning brings.......
In reply to californiamilleghia :
I think you mean President, not PM...while South Korea does have a Prime Minister, that role is similar to the role of the Vice President in the US. From what I've seen it's their President doing all this.
Datsun240ZGuy said:In reply to Mr_Asa :
Shoot, my little Nissan thread got shutdown due to a political turn yesterday.
I saw that.
Datsun240ZGuy said:In reply to Mr_Asa :
Shoot, my little Nissan thread got shutdown due to a political turn yesterday.
Yeah, ounce of prevention is always better than a pound of locked thread, sometimes we aren't fast enough though.
This is the place that is known for fist fights in their parliament also.
Just, a really different standard of the way of doing things sometimes...
(and yes, there used to be fist fights and beat downs in the US congress)
Rebels taking over large parts of Syria. Massive protests in Georgia (not the state). Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, genocide in Sudan...
"It's the end of the world as we know it"
"It's the end of the world as we know it"
"It's the end of the world as we know it"
"And I feel fine"
In reality, this is just typical human behavior... yes, a lot of them are a-holes... something we all need to come to terms with.
And just like that, it's over... via CNN...
What a jackhole...
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol said he will lift martial law hours after he made the declaration in a surprise late-night address and plunged the country into political uncertainty.
Daughter lives in Seul and so far has not deemed this newsworthy enough to pass on to her parents. Last weeks snowstorm that shut down the city was more newsworthy.
In reply to aircooled :
We didn't start the fire.
It was always burning,
Since the world's been turning.
In reply to Driven5 :
I was sweating this as I had a buddy and his wife flying out of SK today. I had a WTF is happening thought and just didn't see how a "western democracy" could have this happen. Found a post on that laid this out and kinda said, yeah that happens there.
Lee Seungman (1948-1960) - deposed.
Yoon Bosong (1960-1962) - overthrown.
Park Chonhee (1962-1979) - assassinated.
Choi Gyu Ha (1979-1980) - ousted by military coup.
Jeong Doo-hwan (1981-1988) - sentenced to death after completing his presidential term.
Roh Dae-woo (1988-1993) - sentenced to 22 years in prison after completing his presidential term.
Kim Young-sam (1993-1998) - Sat in prison until his presidential term. As president, secured the conviction of his two predecessors.
Kim Daejung (1998-2003) - Sat in prison and was sentenced to death before becoming president (later pardoned). Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Roh Moohyun (2003-2008) - Impeached (overturned by the Constitutional Court). After the end of his presidential term, was investigated on corruption charges. He committed suicide
Lee Myung-bak (2008-2013) - After the end of the presidential term, arrested and under arrest on corruption charges.
Park Geun-hye (2013 -2016) - impeached. Arrested on corruption charges. 24 years in prison.
84FSP said:I was sweating this as I had a buddy and his wife flying out of SK today. I had a WTF is happening thought and just didn't see how a "western democracy" could have this happen. Found a post on that laid this out and kinda said, yeah that happens there.
Yeah, AIUI South Korea was basically a military dictatorship until 1980, and while it's improved since then there's still a ways to go. The governments around the world that the US supported against Soviet-backed communist revolutions were usually not particularly great -- if they had been it would have been a lot harder to get that communist revolution going in the first place.
In reply to 84FSP :
It's even weirder when you look closely at it.
President Noh was found dead at the bottom of a cliff. It is said that he committed suicide, but suicide may have been committed upon him.
President Lee was wildly corrupt and it was evident even going into his term in '08. It's likely only because of the power of the chaebols that he served his term.
President Park was not only corrupt but wildly bizarre. Much of the money she stole was funneled into a weird shaman scheme involving a close friend of hers. Park's successor, Moon Jae-In, was quite a bit better; I was surprised that SKor chose Park over Moon in 2012, but then again I was surprised at Lee in '07 too (when I still lived there).
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