Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

South Korean President Declares Martial Law. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired December 03, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:32:56]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And now let's turn back to the fast-moving situation in South Korea, where 190 lawmakers have moments ago voted to block the martial law decree announced by the country's president in a late-night television address.

Will Ripley is joining us from Taipei.

And, Will, we were talking earlier. You said, look, this is such a shock. You were focusing your energy today on reporting out what's going on in North Korea, not what's happening in South Korea. And now, obviously, our attention has pivoted to this extraordinary situation.

Will's going to try to connect with us. He's having some audio issues.

So, Beth Sanner, on that note, just set the scene for us. How significant is this situation unfolding in South Korea right now?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: This is just an earthquake.

I mean, I don't think anybody watching the Koreas was expecting any of this. And I think that it's going to go down as just a huge error on the part of South Korean President Yoon. He has been struggling since he was elected with a 0.7 percent margin of victory 2.5 years ago.

And now I think that the likelihood of him being impeached is -- that's where I'm going to put my bets, that this is all going to end very badly, but in a very, very messy way. And so this is not good for stability and it's not good for the United States' interests in this region at all.

BROWN: Tell us a little bit more about that, what this means for the United States region.

As we know, the United States has a mutual defense treaty with South Korea. It has several military installations there.

SANNER: Yes, so the relationship between the United States and South Korea, right, it's a treaty relationship.

We have a nuclear umbrella over South Korea stemming from the war. And we have troops on the ground, as Cedric was explaining in the last segment, tens of thousands. [11:35:03]

And so our relationship -- the Biden administration has put a lot into this personal relationship between South Korean President Yoon and Biden and the then-Prime Minister Kishida of Japan to have a trilateral relationship, because we see, as the United States, a real interest in having these two powers in East Asia who have been at loggerheads since World War II, having these two countries being united and part of our alliance to stand up to China and to manage the North Korean crisis.

And now all of that is potentially really up in the air, because the opposition leader of South Korea has actually come down very hard on President Yoon being too close to the United States.

BROWN: OK, Beth Sanner, thank you so much.

I want to go to Will Ripley.

I think we are connected now, Will.

Tell us what you make of this situation and what the latest is on what we know with the president of South Korea and whether he will comply with what Parliament has voted on, to block the martial law declaration.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Pam.

Yes, I have just been on the phone kind of ever since we last talked trying to make sense of this, trying to figure out what could happen next. And one thing to consider is the possibility that, yes, under South Korean law, if Parliament overturns the impeachment, theoretically, then the president should comply.

But the president's Cabinet, which presumably would have approved the martial law, they also have to rubber-stamp the Parliament vote. If they don't do that, then you have got a stalemate. So it's not clear at this stage if this thing is even close to being over yet.

There's so many complexities when you're talking about the entire democratic process unexpectedly on a random now early Wednesday morning, but late Tuesday evening, when this announcement was made in South Korea, all of a sudden democracy is out the window for the time being, the media supposedly taken under state control, all political gatherings banned.

And then you have the Parliament forcing their way in, possibly unanimously voting to overturn this, but will the president comply? These are questions that none of us thought we would be asking about South Korea a couple of hours ago, Pamela.

That is how quickly and just astoundingly this is moving, this situation here, as we get later and later into the evening with no real clear answers or clarity about what the path forward is going to be in South Korea to get the government functioning and whether or not this martial law is going to continue or whether it will be overturned, as was voted in Parliament.

BROWN: It's just an extraordinary moment of instability in this country that is a key U.S. ally.

Beth Sanner, I want to go back to you. You talked about President Biden and his cultivating the relationship of South Korea's president over the years and also just how much the president has touted the importance of democracy abroad.

So far, at last check, we have not heard from President Biden yet. We have heard -- we have got a very short statement from the White House. Are you surprised by that?

SANNER: Well, he's in Africa right now on a trip. I'm not even sure exactly where he is. So that could be part of the reason that -- but I think also, look, everybody's just completely stunned, and the idea that the democratically elected head of a key U.S. ally is doing such an undemocratic thing.

And we have so much at stake with North Korea, as well as with China and Taiwan and the entire region. I think that they probably don't know what to say. I mean, I don't know what to say. But, look, President Yoon is someone who, domestically, let's remember, he's unpopular. He has a popularity rating, I think in the 20s right now.

I mean, very -- he's the most unpopular president, I think, in the history of South Korea. And so people are not going to support this in South Korea. They have a problem.

(CROSSTALK)

SANNER: Go ahead. Sorry.

BROWN: It doesn't seem like it would help his popularity. That's for sure.

All right, Beth, we have to leave it there.

[11:40:00]

We have got to take a quick break. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, just minutes ago, lawmakers in South Korea voted to block the martial law declared by its president in a shock announcement.

But there is still a lot of instability and a lot of unknowns at this hour. The president earlier said that he was taking this rare action to protect the country from -- quote -- "communist forces." The president is required by law to comply with the lawmakers' vote, but it's not clear if he will.

[11:45:02]

CNN's Arlette Saenz is traveling with President Biden and joins us now from the African country of Angola.

Arlette, when do we expect to hear from President Biden on this?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, President Biden is set to deliver a speech in the coming hour at the National Museum of Slavery here in Angola, but it's unclear whether he will directly address this developing situation in South Korea.

A National Security Council spokesperson tells me that the U.S. government has been in contact with the South Korean government and is monitoring the situation closely. President Biden was arriving at his hotel here in Angola after meeting with the country's president around the time that this news first started to trickle in relating to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declaring martial law in his country.

So far, the White House has not answered whether President Biden was directly briefed on it, but it does come as Biden has worked over the years to really try to foster deeper relations with South Korea and specifically with President Yoon.

President Biden had hosted him at the White House for a state visit a few years ago. He also hosted him and the then-Prime Minister of Japan Kishida at Camp David for the first ever trilateral summit between the three countries. And Biden last saw President Yoon down in South America when they attended the APEC and G20 summit.

During a meeting with him, he had said that the U.S. relationship with Japan and South Korea would be the foundation of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific going forward. So, President Biden has staked a lot on developing that relationship.

And then there's also other factors to consider as well about the alliance. There are more than 28,000 troops who are stationed in South Korea, so questions about whether this is impacting them in any way. But, certainly, we will be waiting to see whether President Biden speaks out, especially as he has staked so much of his presidency on the need to preserve democracy both at home and abroad.

BROWN: All right, Arlette, I know that you will keep us posted there from Angola.

We're continuing to follow this developing story. And we're going to have much more after a short break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:51]

BROWN: Back to our breaking news in South Korea, where 190 lawmakers have moments ago voted to block the martial law decree announced by the president's -- president there in South Korea in a late-night television address.

And we should note that some of those members of Parliament are in the president's own party, those members, some of them, voting against this declaration. CNN's Mike Valerio is live in Seoul.

You were just a few blocks away from the National Assembly. Mike, we were just talking during the break and you were saying what a shock it was to get the phone call in the middle of the night there about martial law. And your first thought was not that it was happening in South Korea, right?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

We all thought as soon as we got the phone call -- we were going to sleep early to wake up to a report at a school for our CNN international viewers. And we thought, martial law? This has to be in North Korea.

But then when you blink your eyes and look at everything that was coming down from the National Assembly, again, a few blocks away from where we're standing, you realize it's South Korea, and you just sort of stagger for thoughts of how could this possibly happen, as our colleague Will Ripley said a few seconds ago -- or a few minutes ago -- excuse me -- really coming out of left field.

So, Pam, let's set the scene of where we are right now. We are just about a quarter-mile away from the National Assembly. Behind us, if you go down this street and then look to the right, you will be looking front and center at South Korea's National Assembly building, where the Parliament met minutes ago to overturn the declaration of martial law, a majority of the National Assembly voting to overturn the declaration, and applause breaking out throughout the building.

So what we see, these white buses, they all carry about two dozen police officers. You see them all the time when there are protests in the center of Seoul here around the square surrounding the National Assembly.

So what we have been able to witness is certainly a visible pullback by law enforcement. As soon as the overturning of martial law happened earlier in the hour, there was an announcement that was carried through social media platforms, people echoing, emanating throughout the building that law enforcement and members of the military have to leave.

And we have seen evidence of that certainly happening. So what's going on right now? Charlie Miller, our photojournalist behind the camera, let's see if we can look at the police in yellow behind these cars. There are police who are doing crowd control, but there aren't members of law enforcement, Pam, who are stopping people from getting inside the building.

We witnessed that about an hour-and-a-half ago of law enforcement trying to prevent people from entering the National Assembly. There was a large concern that members of Parliament were not going to be able to get back in the chamber to vote to overturn the martial law declaration.

So what they simply needed was just the majority. What we're waiting for now is to see what the president, Yoon Suk Yeol, says next, if he orders another declaration to the military, if he has a message for law enforcement. But, by the Constitution, through the laws of South Korea, the president has to abide by what the National Assembly has just done.

[11:55:16]

His Parliament, though -- or -- excuse me -- President Yoon Suk Yeol's Cabinet, Pam, has to meet to rubber-stamp what the National Assembly just did. So we're waiting for that. We're waiting to see if Yoon Suk Yeol acknowledges what has happened here.

At the moment, it's starting to be a little more calm, but people are gathered to pick up their loved ones and to make their voices known. So many people have told us, Pam, that this is unacceptable This is not what democracy in East Asia is all about, from their points of view, Pam.

BROWN: Yes, the first time the president of South Korea has declared martial law in the democratic era. I mean, this is just extraordinary. Mike Valerio, I know you're going to stay on top of it.

It's 1:55 a.m. Look at all that activity behind him as this continues to unfold.

Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Pamela Brown.

Stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts after a short break.