SEOUL, South Korea — When South Koreans came out to defend democracy this week in the face of a surprise martial law declaration by their president, history was weighing heavily on their minds.
South Korea, a key U.S. ally, is the world’s 10th-largest economy and a vibrant Asian democracy in a region where authoritarianism is on the rise.
But the country of 50 million people spent decades under military-authoritarian rule, with martial law frequently declared and those who resisted it sometimes killed.
But then they ended up at the National Assembly.”Their job was to prevent lawmakers from entering, since the legislature’s operations had been banned under the martial law proclamation.
Historically, “whenever South Korean authoritarian leaders wanted to declare martial law, they typically sought at least some kind of tacit approval from Washington,” Jo said.
Persons:
“, ”, Eun, Yoon Suk Yeol, Jo, ” Jo, Yoon, Syngman Rhee, Rhee, Yun Bo, Park Chung, Park, Choi Kyu, Chun, Bettmann, ” Yoon, Rob York, ” York, Yoon “, York, Chung, Yoon Suk, Woohae Cho, Biden, Jimmy Carter, Jean H, Lee, hye, —, Moon Jae, ” Lee, ” Stella Kim, Jennifer Jett
Organizations:
South, Dickey Center, Dartmouth College, “, National Assembly, ” Lawmakers, Pacific Forum, South Korean, Korean, ”, Wednesday, Bloomberg, Getty, - West Center, Yoon’s
Locations:
SEOUL, South Korea, U.S, Seoul, Korea, ”, South, Soviet, South Korean, Gwangju ., Gwangju, Honolulu ., North Korea, China, Russia, Washington, Japan, Asia, Honolulu, Park, Hong Kong