Event Coverage Highlight

by Chad Bouchard

Journalists covering South Korea from Seoul have faced unsettling threats and political disruption since President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3. The decree, though swiftly overturned, sparked mass protests, impeachment and insurrection charges against Yoon.

“I saw an alert on my phone saying Yoon is making a speech at 10 p.m., and right after that there was another alert saying he declared martial law,” said Ju-min Park, a Reuters correspondent. Martial law “is something that I saw [only] in my history textbooks, from the 80s or 70s, and I couldn’t really get my head around that.”

Ju-min was one of three journalists based in Seoul who joined a discussion on Jan. 29 as part of the OPC’s “In the Thick of It” series highlighting coverage of breaking international news stories.

Alan Zarembo, the foreign and national editor for the Los Angeles Times, moderated. He asked the panelists if they were surprised by Yoon’s declaration.

Max Kim, the Los Angeles Times correspondent in Seoul, said he was caught completely off guard.

“I will admit that I did not see the warning signs at all,” he said. “The former Defense Minister [Kim Yong Hyun], who’s now in jail and facing insurrection charges, was grilled about [martial law] during a parliamentary hearing months before. And he just flatly denied it, saying the people of South Korea today would not tolerate martial law. And that really summed up my view as well. I thought it was just too unrealistic.”

But Chang W. Lee, a foreign bureau photographer for The New York Times, said he wasn’t as shocked as the others, in part because of hearings in September 2024, and because Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee faced allegations that they had peddled political influence.

“I think the only way he and his wife could survive the political future was to have power permanently. So I think that caused his decision” to declare martial law, he said. Chang said South Koreans have 45 years of experience and education about the risks of authoritarian rule.

“They know military dictatorships and threats to their democracy must not succeed. I could feel that on the night of December 3rd. Nobody had second thoughts. Nobody was afraid. They knew what military dictatorship and martial law can bring to them and to their democracy.”

Zarembo asked the panel to describe the mood on the ground in Seoul. Max said South Koreans are exhausted.

“They’re tired of this sort of tit-for-tatting. People just want a stable presidential term now. And I don’t know if there’s enhanced confidence, even if maybe there is reason to feel that. I think fatigue is the dominant mood I’m picking up on.”

Ju-min said she sees South Korea at a crossroads politically, with many Koreans still processing recent events and what they will mean for the country’s future.

“We have to see what the court will rule on [Yoon’s] presidency, and see results of this upcoming presidential election if Yoon is out. But the bottom line is I think this martial law – the whole thing has been huge – it’s going to be a trauma for a lot of Koreans down the road.”

Click the window below to watch a playlist of video clips from the program.