Korean Diaspora in Australia Stunned by Declaration of Martial Law
Korean Australians awoke in amazement to learn that martial law had been proclaimed — and quickly lifted — in their home nation overnight.
"This is unbelievable and very poor judgment on the part of the president," said Jay Song, an associate professor at Australian National University.
"This is so embarrassing.
"What is he thinking?" You know, this is the twenty-first century. Korea is a democracy.
The stunning development was a temporary reality.
Parliamentarians voted against martial law just 155 minutes after unpopular conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced it.
Mr Yoon quickly reversed his position, but observers fear his political career has been irreparably damaged.
Many people described the change of events as "surreal". Some had to double-check that it was true and not "fake news".
For members of the Korean diaspora in Australia, the events brought up memories of a grim past.
The last time South Korea was under martial law was over 40 years ago.
In 1980, tyrant Chun Doo-hwan launched a violent military crackdown on students and pro-democracy activists in the southern city of Gwangju, killing over 200 people.
Gil-Soo Han of Monash University recalls living under martial law in the capital at the time.
"Around four o'clock or five o'clock in the afternoon, the whole world goes dead silent," he told me.
"[People] are unable to move because the armies can kill civilians at any time. So that was very scary."
Martial law has its roots in military dictatorships.
Sung-Ae Lee, a Korean popular culture expert at Macquarie University, recounts being a student when martial law was established in 1979, when dictator Park Chung-hee was assassinated by his spy chief, and again in 1980, during the Gwangju massacre.
"During martial law, we were unable to attend university. "The soldiers surrounded the gates."
She recalls attending a large demonstration with thousands of people. When one young woman stepped up to address the audience, she was apprehended by plainclothes military troops.
"She couldn't even finish her sentence … [before they] dragged her down," she told me.
"I believe they gave her an injection [to sedate her] in front of us, 8,000 people. That was quite a shock."
She claimed that young people who appeared to be university students were frequently arrested without a warrant and that strong censorship kept many people unaware of the savagery of the Gwangju crackdown.
"We were not aware of what kind of freedoms were allowed to us," she told me.
Freedom of speech was restrictive. So you do not know who to believe, or who to trust.
'It's a really sad history."
She left the nation in 1981 to study in the United States before settling in Australia.
"I remember when I came to Australia after that, my father told me: 'Getting out of this country is a success,'" she went on.
Mr Yoon's actions reminded her of South Korea's difficult past.
"I think he is very anachronistic," she stated.
"History repeats itself."
Gil-Soo Han of Monash University stated that even before the martial law announcement, a petition circulated among diaspora academics for Mr Yoon to step down.
Swirling political scandals, including those involving Mr Yoon's wife and mother-in-law, had created enormous pressure, he claimed.
"It's like a big mouse being pushed and pushed into a corner, and he didn't know where to run, and then he did something just unimaginable."
What's North Korea got to do with it?
When Sung-Young Kim first received the news over breakfast, he assumed there had been a significant escalation of tensions from North Korea.
"I was completely taken aback," Macquarie University's international politics expert remarked.
"My first reaction was, 'Oh my gosh, has North Korea launched a strike or something?'"
Mr Yoon vaguely listed "anti-state forces" and "threats posed by North Korea" as reasons for his proclamation.
However, experts argue that the proclamation had nothing to do with North Korean aggressions and was primarily about the domestic political impasse, which included severe budget cuts for Mr Yoon.
Danielle Chubb, an associate professor of international relations at Deakin University, said that while relations between North and South Korea had deteriorated significantly in the last year, there was nothing particularly new or noteworthy to justify Mr. Yoon's comments, and he had not provided any evidence.
"It's just a thin pretext for a president who has been struggling … with legitimacy and struggling to overcome domestic political gridlock," she said on CNN.
"It's concerning because it hearkens back to the not-so-distant, but very dark authoritarian past, where any government opponents were tarred with this brush of being pro-North Korea."
She stated that the move was "so stunningly politically unwise" that it came as a "complete shock" even to those carefully following South Korean politics.
"It's hard to see how this would have played out for him in a way that would be beneficial."
She expressed relief that no lives had been lost during the pandemonium overnight.
According to Sung-Young Kim, everybody who visits Seoul frequently is aware that protests take place virtually every day in front of the presidential Blue House.
"South Korea has a vibrant and hard-fought democracy..." People have long memories, so I assumed this would be contested.
Professor Chubb stated that the United States and Australia had responded in a somewhat weak manner, rather than with strong denunciation.
"Australia's focus and the US focus is always on South Korea as an important geopolitical strategic ally, and there's an unwillingness, I think, to delve into some of this domestic political quagmire," she told me.
Dr Jay Song also urged the Australian government to denounce Mr Yoon's behavior.
"South Korea's hard-won democracy is very fragile, but it is still a democracy," she informed the audience.
"It's not only South Korea. I believe it is a really dangerous political trend worldwide.
"This very sort of rogue, out-of-control leader can bring this chaos and mistrust and misinformation, and that can erupt violent acts and conflict amongst people."