Hong Jun-pyo: "'Midnight Happening' as Martial Law Support? Illiteracy-Based Slander"

"Martial Law Justification Unfounded and Execution Clumsy, Called a 'Happening'"
"Supporting Martial Law? Malicious Defamation Due to Poor Literacy"

Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, who described the emergency martial law situation as a 'midnight happening,' said on the 9th, "I did not endorse the martial law."

Mayor Hong opened his statement on his Facebook that day by saying, "My first words after the martial law incident were not to endorse martial law but to call it a midnight happening." He explained, "I said it was a happening because the reasons for martial law were not valid and its execution was clumsy, and when I said 'I understand the loyalty,' it was because the government was paralyzed by repeated reckless impeachments of opposition party officials, and the unprecedented unilateral budget approval by the opposition party was an unprecedented outrage."

Hong Joon-pyo, Mayor of Daegu. Photo by Yonhap News

He continued, "Such issues are political problems that the president should resolve through dialogue and compromise with the opposition party, and the fact that they tried to solve it with emergency martial law was a fatal mistake. Some media's arbitrary interpretation that I endorsed martial law is a malicious slander showing poor literacy," emphasizing, "I hope there is no misunderstanding."

Earlier, President Yoon Suk-yeol declared emergency martial law through an urgent national address at around 10:25 p.m. on the 3rd. It was reportedly prepared in secret without even several presidential office aides knowing. However, about six hours later, in the early morning of the 4th, martial law was lifted following the National Assembly's request.

Regarding this, Mayor Hong said on Facebook on the 4th, "I understand the loyalty, but it was a reckless midnight happening," and added, "I regret whether there was no other way." He also said, "I have been worried for a month that it would flow like the eve of Park Geun-hye's impeachment, so I hope it will be well managed."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.