Transcription
The South Korean president declared martial law in a late-night TV address. CNN's Mike Valerio is joining us now from Seoul. Mike, I know the details are pretty sketchy at this point. What do we know?
Well, we have disturbing details that are just crossing the Reuters wire. Becky, as our colleagues and team of journalists are sorting through what this means, Reuters is reporting at this hour that all media in South Korea are coming under the control of martial law command in South Korea. What that means for us here at CNN is unclear. Our bureau is broadcasting from the heart of Seoul, South Korea. But protesters, according to information that is just coming into our bureau here, are being told by law enforcement that they can be arrested without any warrant in this new chapter of martial law that has begun just about an hour, an hour and a half ago.
So, to bring our viewers up to speed, what exactly we're dealing with here: the president of South Korea comes on TV in an unannounced address to the nation and says, Becky, because of what he described as elements of government that are, from his view, sympathetic to North Korea, to communist forces. Because of those things and others, he's declaring martial law for the first time since this country has been ruled by military dictatorship in the 1980s. Now we are trying to sort through what this means for democracy in this bastion of democratic rule in East Asia.
I live just a couple of minutes away from where we're broadcasting from. There are police, Becky, who are on their phones calling their captains, calling their colleagues, asking what they are to do. What does this mean? What is going on in the building that I live in? And when you're just walking through the streets, there are people who are running to their family's homes to be with them, to figure out what to do, to be close to loved ones in this moment that is unprecedented in so many of our memories, so unique.
The president of South Korea did not lay out what specifically he wants to do with these martial law provisions. We're waiting for some sort of text that outlines what powers he says he will have. But from the information that is trickling out, the leader of the Democratic opposition party is saying there's no way this can fly. Paraphrasing what he's saying, we're taking in all this information, Becky, this is an illegal move. The opposition leader says this has to be canceled.
So lawmakers are streaming to Parliament, but we are also seeing reports of activity at Parliament being declared illegal as well because of these martial law regulations that apparently have come into effect. So to say that this is unsettling would absolutely be the understatement of the evening here at 11:42 p.m. local time on a Tuesday night. There are multitudes of people across the city who are stunned and are trying to figure out how an unpopular president made this move and what is going to happen next, and what this means for democracy here in South Korea.
Becky, standby. I'm going to let you go just for the moment because I'm sure you can spend your time wisely bringing in more information to CNN. Thank you for the time being. I want to bring in Kenneth Choi, the international editor for the Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo. It's good to have you. How do you assess what is going on and why?
Well, actually, a lot of people are dismayed. I've been in close communication with a lot of people, journalists, friends, and political circles. Actually, everybody is flabbergasted. They don't know what's going on right now. Do you understand why the president made his call the way he did?
It's absolutely stunning. You know, it seems like he hasn't informed a lot of people, even inside his circle. So there's a lot of confusion going on.
I mean, the opposition party has filed, like...
Yeah, yeah. Go ahead.
Yeah. Sorry. Let me just be quite clear. You said you understand why the president did this, made this decision. Can you explain what that is? Why specifically do you believe that he has declared martial law? And who are these sort of communist elements that he is talking about wanting to purge?
Well, he is frustrated because the opposition party, which controls about almost two-thirds of the parliament, has impeached like 18 of his cabinet ministers. They have impeached the prosecutor general, you know, so they are impeaching everybody. And then the opposition party cut down like almost $4 billion in the government budget. So he believes that the opposition parties are trying to shut his government down, and he believes that all the leftist elements from the North Korean agents or whatever have penetrated into this movement. They are inciting all this instability.
I'm not sure that this is deemed necessary to have martial law. That's a secondary question. But, you know, when I said I understand why he did it, it's because he's frustrated. I'm not sure that that's justified because even he's the president of the ruling party, and he will try to stop this.
So right now, there's a lot of confusion going on. The martial law committee chair, I guess whoever it is, has declared that no political activity is allowed from now on. So I think, as you said, the very essence of our democracy has probably come to a halt. I don't know whether it's a price we should pay.
So a lot of people right now, you know, it's the middle of the night. People are confused, still watching what's being sort of played out. And actually, you know, there are a lot of legal aspects to this that need to be taken care of first. You know, the president declared martial law, but the parliament can override this. If the parliament requests with a simple majority to put the martial law back into the cabinet, then he has to follow suit. But the question is, will he? Does he bind to follow through, or does he just continue to declare martial law? It still remains to be seen.
So, you know, a lot of people are very confused at this time.
You said a lot of people are confused. It is obviously very late at night. This announcement was made on live television at 10:30 at night. Can you explain why you believe that the president might have made this decision to go live with this so late in the evening? Why not wait until tomorrow? I mean, is there any understanding as to whether he thought leaving this until the morning would have been a risk?
I have no idea. To tell you the truth, I don't know why he chose this time of the day to declare martial law. To me, and a lot of people that I talked to think that I'm not sure whether he has thought through this whole procedure at this moment because, you know, the police are in confusion. The military is not mobilized at all. I just looked out the window, and the traffic is still going on without any problems.
And then, you know, the martial law committee just declared that no political association is allowed, but that's just words. You know, there's no physical movement by the military or police. So it's really a puzzling thing. I don't know why he chose this time of the night. I mean, declaring martial law and putting everybody on their toes. So it's a good question.