[Inside Chodong] It Is President Yoon Who Must Face the Reality of Martial Law That Day

Yoon Claims "Nothing Happened" During Martial Law at Constitutional Court
On the Day of Martial Law, Citizens Stood Against Military and Police to Defend Democracy

"Nothing happened."

President Yoon Seok-yeol, who is currently undergoing impeachment proceedings, said this at the Constitutional Court on December 4th regarding the night of December 3rd last year when martial law was declared. President Yoon also claimed at a meeting with ruling party lawmakers that "I could not just stand by and watch the government paralyzed by parliamentary dictatorship, so I took the martial law measure with a heavy sense of responsibility."

However, the 101-page prosecution indictment is filled with content that directly denies the president’s statements. Still, vague expectations about the position of the president and the polarized political reality trapped in a one-eyed factional logic have made the truth of that night a subject of ‘controversy.’ The short period from midnight to dawn, from the declaration to the lifting of martial law, avoided tragedies such as bloodshed, and the events at the time were not properly illuminated amid dramatic developments afterward. And sleepless nights continued for two months.

Was the martial law, as he said, a warning martial law, or a realistic fear? What about those who rushed to protect the National Assembly upon hearing the news of martial law?

One aide who was working late at the National Assembly building that day noticed a military helicopter attempting to land on the National Assembly grounds and ran to the field. He thought, "If I just stand here, surely our military helicopter won’t land." Feeling that "I might be facing armed soldiers," he recalled, "I called my wife because it might be the last time." Until the martial law was lifted, he literally fought hand-to-hand, holding back elite special forces soldiers. When asked how the National Assembly was protected, he recalled, "Thanks to the citizens outside who blocked the military’s entry into the National Assembly," adding, "Without the citizens, the main building would have been breached in one blow."

The area outside the National Assembly was practically a battlefield. The military and police surrounding the National Assembly faced resistance from citizens in many places. Some lawmakers who succeeded in entering the National Assembly building at the time recalled, "Citizens who were surprised by the martial law and came out to the streets recognized us as lawmakers and fought with the police to push us into the building." Some military units could not enter the National Assembly because citizens blocked military vehicles or lay down under buses carrying troops and equipment, saying "Step on me and go ahead."

The soldiers who had to play the villain also resisted that day through ‘work slowdowns.’ The elite troops known as the ‘decapitation unit’ walked instead of running and were passive in physical confrontations. Soldiers, who could not even imagine aiming their guns at civilians, especially their own people, chose their own way not to become ‘rebels.’

It is said that the National Assembly staff, aides, and soldiers who gathered to protect the building engaged in a strange physical struggle that day. Even in the imminent crisis, if a soldier fell, they helped him up, and they made efforts to restrain direct clashes by telling each other "Don’t push any harder."

Those who stepped forward to protect the National Assembly say that at some point they thought about the ‘end.’ Nevertheless, in an unrealistic situation, each accomplished what they thought they had to do, driven by a sense of duty that cannot be defined. Thanks to their courage and dedication, democracy on this land was able to be preserved that day. Having seen what happened that day, I cannot agree with the president’s statement that "Nothing happened." President Yoon, who said he felt "like chasing the shadow of the moon falling on a lake," must face the broken country since that day.

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