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South Korea Declares Martial Law. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired December 03, 2024 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:01:42]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Well, good morning. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Pamela Brown in Washington.

And we begin with this breaking news out of one of the most tense regions in the world, a major U.S. ally. A short time ago, the leader of South Korea declared martial law. This was a late-night address from the president announcing this emergency action in a TV address and accused the opposition party of sympathizing with North Korea.

CNN's Will Ripley joins us now.

I mean, Will, let's just set the stage for our viewers here. South Korea has been a modern, boisterous, vibrant democracy since the late 1980s, regularly allowing for demonstrations and free speech, the peaceful transfer of power, and so forth.

This is not a typical scene that we are looking at out of South Korea, and it is an extraordinary political move to declare this martial law. Tell us more about what we're seeing here.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is essentially the first martial law in something like 40 years in South Korea.

They have enjoyed a peaceful transfer of power, despite increasingly divided politics that have been plaguing Seoul. The president, Yoon, his approval rating has been absolutely abysmal, under 20 percent by some estimates in recent weeks, and at the same time, he has seen more than a dozen of his Cabinet members impeached.

He has seen his budget slashed by the opposition, which controls the Parliament by something like $4 billion, billions of dollars of programs that were important to him, including his insistence that they need to bolster their military protection in South Korea, often citing what he views as a growing threat from North Korea, which, in addition to sending weapons to Putin's war in Ukraine, has also dispatched something like 10,000 North Korean soldiers to that war as and, well, blowing up roads that are linking North and South Korea.

By the way, those moves, sending soldiers away from the North and to Ukraine and to Russia, would kind of go against the argument of President Yoon that North Korea is posing an imminent threat there in the South, but, nonetheless, he cited North Korea as the reason for this martial law.

His opponents believe that what he's really trying to do is to try to push through his agenda, including getting a budget passed. He feels it's impossible with his opposition in control in Parliament right now. So, by enacting martial law, essentially banning political activity, taking control of the media, banning people from gathering in protest, I mean, all of these things are now essentially illegal under martial law.

He could try to use the military to really quash dissent. Now, the caveat here is that the majority in Parliament, under South Korean law, they should be able to vote. And with a simple majority, they should be able to just overturn this. They should be able to say, this martial law needs to end.

And, theoretically, the president and the military must comply. But as you see in these images, and this is all moving so quickly and so rapidly, but you have people trying to force their way into Parliament. You have the military there, lots of unconfirmed rumors, and basically an entire nation, a democracy, just flabbergasted, and of course, huge concerns about what this is going to mean moving forward, this political chaos and instability for the South Korean economy.

[11:05:17]

BROWN: Yes. No, so many questions. And it's interesting because the president announced this martial law very late. It's in the middle of the night over there in South Korea right now, the intent to quash dissent.

But the images we're seeing coming out of South Korea is not that. You were seeing an escalatory tense situation there outside of the government building.

I want to go to Mike Valerio bring us there on the scene with what is unfolding, Mike.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rahel (sic), we now have this ban or this declaration of martial law that has been overturned by Parliament.

Will Ripley, our colleague in Taipei, was just saying it should take a simple majority of Parliament to overturn this. And that has happened within the past two to three minutes, applause breaking out in the National Assembly.

We're headed there now, but certainly a feeling of palpable apprehension of demonstrators trying to get to the National Assembly. We're seeing members of the military, law enforcement in their green camouflage helmets and uniforms.

And we had reports that these members of law enforcement were trying to stop members of the National Assembly from coming into the building to overturn this declaration of martial law. But enough members managed to get in. Again, 1:06 a.m. here in Seoul, and members of the National Assembly have overturned martial law in South Korea minutes ago.

So now the question is, what does South Korea's president do now that lawmakers have overturned martial law in South Korea across the country? He did this as a way to reclaim power. He's a very weak president, his approval rating hovering in the upper 20 percent, conservative figure known in this country for decades as a strong prosecutor, as somebody who has taken a strong stance against North Korea and aggression coming from north of the DMZ.

And he did this, as far as we can tell, because there have been unending calls to impeach him, to remove him from office. And he said in an address to the nation a few hours ago that this with his way of strengthening control of government, which he said has been paralyzed by these calls for his impeachment and calls to impeach other members of the government, heads of ministries that he installed as well.

So the question is, how does the president respond? How does law enforcement and members of the military respond? I can tell you that we have early reports of law enforcement starting to pull back from the building.

And you can see on the screen more and more people getting into the National Assembly. So we're going to see if this holds.

BROWN: Yes.

VALERIO: But, again, in dramatic -- in a dramatic tableau, lawmakers in Seoul just voted to overturn martial law, with applause ringing out throughout the building.

BROWN: Really remarkable how quickly all of this is unfolding.

Mike, my understanding is you are there. You're on the phone with us. Just help us understand what's happening there right now outside of that building. Obviously, we see the video, but you're able to see the full picture. So bring us there.

VALERIO: Yes, we're on our way there.

BROWN: OK.

VALERIO: We were in our bureau in the center of the city because we weren't sure if we were going to be able to have a signal, if it was safe for us to broadcast.

But the center of gravity of what is happening is at the National Assembly building. But I can tell you, throughout the streets, where we are in the center of Seoul right now and as you move throughout the city, there are police officers on the phone who are wondering what is going on, who are calling their captains.

You can overhear them in Korean saying: "What are we doing? What is happening right now?" There are people who are leaving bars, who are leaving restaurants, calling their moms, calling their dads, calling their children, saying: "I'm coming home right now."

This has not happened within the 21st century, a declaration of military -- of martial law, something that remains in memories of people from the 1980s, when South Korea was still under a military dictatorship. So people are bracing for what the president, Yoon Suk Yeol, could do now and what orders he will give the military and law enforcement.

And will they be heeded? Will those orders be heeded now that the government, the Parliament, the National Assembly, has voted to overturn the president's declaration that he is in charge martial law, martial law reigns, anybody can be arrested without a warrant. That has just been overturned minutes ago.

[11:10:17]

BROWN: The question, as you point out, though, is the practical effect, right? Will the president comply with this?

Will Ripley, I want to go back to you, because that is a key question now, the impact that this vote there in Parliament, this overnight vote, will have on the martial law declaration. As far as I know, we haven't heard from the president again.

RIPLEY: Essentially this boils down to how much support President Yoon has from the military itself.

And would the military honor this vote in Parliament, where people had to wrangle themselves in to the building? But, as far as we know at this point, there were no shots fired. This was not something that turned into what could have been an absolutely brutal and horrific moment for this democracy, a life-altering moment for this democracy.

But that hasn't happened they pushed them their way to the building, they voted, and now they have overturned it. So does President Yoon have the support of the military to try to keep this thing going?

But, again, keeping in mind just how deeply unpopular he is, there's been the perception by some in South Korea that he's used this North Korean issue, even issuing nationwide alerts that people felt were gratuitous for things like a North Korean missile launch tests, to try to scare people, to try to rally people behind his agenda, a deeply unpopular agenda that is being essentially stomped out at every opportunity by the opposition in Parliament.

And he's grown so frustrated, apparently so paranoid, thinking that North Korean agents have somehow infiltrated the South Korean Parliament, and are acting through his opposition to try to undermine his agenda.

But the fact that he would surprise even members of his inner circle with this and to make this announcement in an unexpected way, declare martial law, throw his nation into chaos, at a time where there is already so much uncertainty in the world, it raises a lot of questions about his mind-set at this moment, what he's thinking. What is his plan B now that this has been overturned? Had he thought about this? And these are all questions that we don't know the answer to. We have to literally sit back and watch this completely unexpected, out-of-left-field curveball that has been thrown our way in South Korea.

Of all the things happening and brewing in the world, the story I was working on all day about North Korea and what's going on with them, and we have Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un...

BROWN: Yes. Right.

RIPLEY: ... definitely didn't expect, Pamela, to be here talking with you about this tonight after midnight here in Taipei.

BROWN: Yes. And I certainly didn't expect to be leading the show with this. And it is the ultimate curveball.

And we were just talking about this, M.J. Lee, just what a shock this is for our viewers just turning in. Look, this is a vibrant democracy in South Korea. This is the first time a president of South Korea has declared martial law in the democratic era. Now the Parliament voted to overturn that.

But it is an extraordinary move. And it's something that America should be paying attention to.

What is President Biden saying right now?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

As we were discussing before, when I saw these headlines coming into my inbox, I was completely stunned. I mean, it is so extraordinary what we have seen over the last few hours in South Korea. As you pointed out, martial law has not existed in South Korea since the 1980s.

I was born there in the very last year that there was a military dictatorship in the country, right before there was the first democratic presidential election that elected Roh Tae-woo at the time.

I think Mike was making this point before. For people in my parents' generation and my grandparents' generation, the kinds of scenes we are seeing and the headlines that we are talking about, that is not history for them. They lived through these moments and moments of upheaval and violence when they were growing up.

So I cannot imagine how shocking this must be for the folks actually in the country. And to have this come out in an unplanned address, practically in the middle of the night...

BROWN: Right.

LEE: ... none of this was expected.

As for the reaction from here in Washington, obviously, the president is not here. President Biden is traveling in Angola right now. We have heard basically nothing from the president himself so far.

All we have right now is a statement, actually just a sentence, from a National Security Council spokesperson, saying the administration is in contact with the ROK government and is monitoring the situation closely.

[11:15:08]

I have asked the White House, well, at some point, are we going to hear from the president? Are we going to get a sense of what his reaction is to this, so that we have a better sense of what position the United States government is going to take as all of these scenes are unfolding?

And I do think we should talk about the Biden-Yoon relationship and the U.S.-South Korea relationship. This is a president, as you know, who has made real efforts to build up and foster and strengthen the U.S.' alliances with countries like South Korea and Japan.

In 2022, when he made his first trip as president to Asia, he visited Korea and Japan. Last year, you might recall that he hosted Yoon Suk Yeol for a state visit at the White House, really rolling out the red carpet for this president, this South Korean president that just did something so unprecedented.

You would think this would be a good moment for the president and this administration to really weigh in. So far, nothing yet.

BROWN: And as we talked about, South Korea is a key U.S. ally. President Biden has been very outspoken about the importance of democracy outside of the United States.

LEE: Right.

BROWN: And just for our viewers trying to make sense of what's happening in South Korea, our domestic viewers, why should they be paying attention to this and paying close attention?

LEE: I think you make such a good point about President Biden consistently and repeatedly talking about the importance of democratic institutions across the country.

If you have spent any time covering this president, you will know that he often tells this story about meeting with world leaders and world leaders sort of asking them about the U.S.' position and the U.S.' role in playing a leadership role across the world and on the global stage, and particularly after the four years of Donald Trump.

And, again, I come back to the fact that we haven't yet heard directly from President Biden. This would be a moment for him to weigh in to say about somebody that he has, again, had some warm interactions with over the years what his reaction is to the fact that this is a person that has called martial law for the first time in this country's history in a number of decades, whether he finds that acceptable, and, frankly, what Americans should be making sense of these shocking scenes that are coming out of Seoul. BROWN: For certain. We're going to continue to cover this unfolding story there in South Korea. We're going to see what happens, if we're going to hear from the president again now that the Parliament voted to overturn his martial law declaration.

Will he comply, as required by South Korean law? We will wait and see.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:22:33]

BROWN: Let's go back to the breaking news out of South Korea.

The president there has just declared martial law. He made the announcement in a late-night TV address, saying it's needed to protect the country from -- quote -- "communist forces." And then the Parliament voted to overturn that martial law declaration.

This is a live look outside the National Assembly. These are opposition party members crowding there.

CNN military analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton and Major Mike Lyons joins us now with insight.

Look, this shocked all of us here in the U.S. This is not a typical scene in South Korea. In fact, it's the first time a South Korean president declared martial law in the democratic era. South Korea is a major U.S. ally.

Cedric, first to you. What do you make of what's transpired there?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Pamela, this is definitely a seminal event in the history of modern South Korea.

These kinds of scenes are reminiscent of what happened in the 1980s, when the South Korean people rose up against the military dictatorship that existed during that time. And that resulted in the Constitution of 1987, which is the Constitution that South Korea is following right now.

So this is a dangerous moment, because any instability in South Korea is currently going to affect our ability to project power from a military standpoint in the Indo-Pacific. We have about 8,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea. We have a lot of business connections, economic connections in South Korea, a lot of cultural connections now.

And this is something that is -- this mark of instability is something that is not only deeply concerning, but it could have an impact on world markets. It could have an impact on our ability to conduct military operations in -- not only in Asia, but in other parts of the world as well. BROWN: To bring you in on that point, Mike, as Cedric noted, the U.S.

has several military installations in South Korea. How could this impact the U.S. service members that are stationed in that area?

As Cedric put it, look, this is a mark of instability, and we still don't know what's going to happen, even though the Parliament voted to overturn the martial law declaration.

MAJ. MIKE LYONS (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Yes, they have probably been alerted back to their bases right now and watching what the Korean military is doing.

It's all right now depending on their chairman or the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It's an admiral, Kim Myung-soo. He runs their military right now, and whether or not he will pay attention to this order that's been given by the Parliament, by the National Assembly to basically stand down.

[11:25:11]

I'm not sure if they had any orders to begin with, what that would look like, what it operationally looks like to deploy your military in martial law. But, again, if the military goes along with this, we know that he was somewhat aligned with the president. He had a much more hawkish view with regards to what South Korea military policy should be.

The South Korean military has got tremendous technology. They have U.S. equipment, and they're ready to defend from the North. But I'm not sure if it's used internally to their civilians. I mean, we're at a place that no one ever imagined we'd be.

BROWN: Yes, typically, the focus, Cedric, is on North Korea, right? I mean, it's unusual that we'd be talking about South Korea in this way.

What are you looking for right now? What's the kind of thing that you're -- what developments are you waiting to happen or looking for right now?

LEIGHTON: Now, Pamela, that is really interesting. And what Mike mentioned is right on target here, because there are some conflicting rules within the South Korean government.

The president, just like in the United States, is the commander in chief of the armed forces. But under the Constitution of South Korea, the Parliament has the ability to overturn martial law, which is, of course, just what happened.

So now, as Mike mentioned, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in South Korea, the South Korean chairman, Admiral Kim, is going to be somebody who has to make a major decision here and to deploy forces in a public way against the people of South Korea potentially. That, of course, would mark a major break with the structure and the organization of the South Korean military in the modern age.

In the past, the South Korean military was used to quell disturbances, to quell riots domestically, but in some cases quite tragically. But this is a different time, and the South Korean military has professionalized itself along the lines of the U.S. military.

So the type of domestic issues that would make the South Korean military do something like that have basically been washed away by the democratic institutions that South Korea has created in the last few decades.

And, like you said at the beginning of your question, Pamela, the South Korean military is a North Korea -- is facing North Korea. Their main target is -- the main reason for being is the North Korean threat. And if they don't see a North Korean threat in the actions of the president, then it stands to reason that they may not follow his orders.

And, of course, the National Assembly is countermanding at least the martial law order, so we will see how that goes.

BROWN: Yes. And it's also worth noting he has very low approval ratings for the president there, in the 20s. So you have to wonder how that would factor in as well.

All right, thank you so much, Cedric, Mike. We appreciate it.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)