By Sebin Choi and Eduardo Baptista
SEOUL (Reuters) – When President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a state of emergency, South Korea’s first since 1980, 70-year-old Lee Chul-Woo was reminded of his youth, spent much of it protesting against the rule of the right-wing military.
The swift rejection and failure of Yoon’s move stems in part from that painful history that millions of South Koreans still vividly remember. There have been more than a dozen cases of martial law declared since South Korea was established as a republic in 1948.
Lee, a supporter of main opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung who has been protesting for the past few days demanding Yoon’s impeachment, said he took part in pro-democracy student protests in the 1980s and was beaten and arrested by soldiers, an experience that still gives him chills. sweat and nightmares.
“When (Yoon’s) martial law collapsed, I was somewhat relieved, whenever I hear ‘martial law’ I remember the old days, the oppression of human rights,” Lee said.
Hundreds of people are estimated to have died or gone missing when the South Korean military violently suppressed an uprising in Gwangju in May 1980, which began in response to General Chun Doo-hwan’s installation of a military dictatorship and declaration of martial law that same month.
The event, seen by some as a precursor to the transition to democracy in 1987, has since been marked as a painful reminder of the country’s journey to becoming a liberal democracy.
Lee, a retired teacher, recalled how troops in Seoul entered the grounds of the university where he studied with machine guns and tanks during the Gwangju massacre.
When troops were sent to the National Assembly on Tuesday night to carry out Yoon’s orders, Lee said he thought about the death toll in Gwangju and was grateful that the troops were not “as ignorant as they were in Gwangju” this time.
ECHOES OF THE AUTHORITARIAN PAST
In an unscheduled late-night televised address on Tuesday, Yoon said martial law was necessary to protect South Korea “from the threat of North Korean communist forces” and “root out the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are robbing our people of freedom and happiness.”
His branding of critics and opponents as North Korean or communist sympathizers echoes language used by South Korean governments before 1987 to justify cracking down on dissent, alienating voters like Lee who suffered under right-wing authoritarian governments.
“When I see this guy now, his mindset is from the 60s and 70s, Yoon Suk Yeol can’t escape that era,” Lee said.
While Lee hopes younger Koreans will take his place at the protests, he said he will protect the National Assembly with his own body if martial law is declared again.
“Now that I’m over 70, I’ve lived enough, haven’t I? Young people shouldn’t make sacrifices, people like us have to make sacrifices,” he said.
