{"id":68118,"date":"2024-12-04T12:31:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T03:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/dec\/04\/south-korea-martial-law-drama-yoon-suk-yeol-history-of-coups-military-rule"},"modified":"2024-12-04T13:36:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T04:36:01","slug":"south-koreas-history-of-coups-and-martial-law-explained-in-30-seconds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=68118","title":{"rendered":"South Korea\u2019s surprising history of coups and martial law \u2013 explained in 30 seconds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea has only been governed democratically since 1988, with a previous history of military-authoritarian rule dating back to the Korean war<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/dec\/04\/south-korea-martial-law-president-yoon-suk-yeol-calls-to-resign-ntwnfb\">News report: South Korea\u2019s president Yoon Suk Yeol faces calls to resign after martial law shock<\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>South Korea became a democracy only in the late 1980s, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/dec\/03\/declaration-of-martial-law-awakens-ghosts-south-koreans-thought-were-laid-to-rest\">military intervention in civilian affairs<\/a> remains a touchy subject.<\/p>\n<p> During the dictatorships that emerged as the country rebuilt from the destruction of the 1950-53 Korean war, leaders occasionally proclaimed martial law that allowed them to station combat soldiers, tanks and armoured vehicles on streets or in public places to prevent anti-government demonstrations.<\/p>\n<p> Such scenes are unimaginable for many today.<\/p>\n<p> The dictator Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea for nearly 20 years before he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1979\/10\/27\/archives\/president-park-is-slain-in-korea-by-intelligence-chief-seoul-says.html\">assassinated by his spy chief in 1979<\/a>, led several thousand troops into Seoul in the early hours of 16 May 1961, in the country\u2019s first successful coup.<\/p>\n<p>During his rule, he occasionally proclaimed martial law to crack down on protests and jail critics.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/dec\/04\/south-korea-martial-law-drama-yoon-suk-yeol-history-of-coups-military-rule\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea has only been governed democratically since 1988, with a previous history of military-authoritarian rule dating back to the Korean warNews report: South Korea\u2019s president Yoon Suk Yeol faces calls to resign after martial law shock South Kor&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,222,45,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-south-korea","category-us-foreign-policy","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68138,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68118\/revisions\/68138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}