hankyoreh

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung speaks at a meeting of the party’s Supreme Council held at the National Assembly on Sept. 2, 2024. (Kim Gyoung-ho/Hankyoreh)

South Korean politicians are caught up in a heated — and unusually timed — debate over possible martial law scenarios.

The situation began when Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung made a reference to “speculation about martial law preparations” in his remarks before a summit with his ruling party counterpart last Sunday.

Lee’s remarks prompted a counterattack from the presidential office and ruling People Power Party (PPP), which accused him of spreading “fabricated and baseless rumors” and “demoralizing behavior.” The clash intensified as members of the Democratic Party leadership and lawmakers in the National Assembly National Defense Committee launched their own cover fire.

The origins of the growing speculation about “martial law preparations” can be traced back to a proposed enforcement decree amendment for the Presidential Security Act announced by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration in November 2022. The terms of the amendment would empower the Presidential Security Service (PSS) under chief Kim Yong-hyun — the current nominee for minister of national defense — to direct and oversee the performance of security duties by the military and police.

If the proposed amendment had been implemented, the PSS chief would have effectively gained command over around 3,000 people, including 700 PSS agents, 1,300 police officers, and 1,000 soldiers.

At the time, the rationale provided by the presidential office for increasing the authority of the protective service had to do with the open surroundings of the Ministry of National Defense complex in Seoul’s Yongsan neighborhood where the office had relocated, in contrast with the mountain-flanked location of the Blue House. On this basis, it claimed that increased staffing and equipment were essential for security.

But the situation was also seen as an attempt to restore PSS oversight and command over other organizations, which only previously existed under Park Chung-hee’s authoritarian Yushin regime for a four-year period starting in 1976. Opposition party supporters read it as an early gambit by the presidential office — conscious of growing anti-government sentiment — to suppress popular objections in the event of a crisis by issuing an emergency decree on par with martial law.

In the wake of the controversy, the enforcement decree amendment was put on hold. In May 2023, a revised version passed the Cabinet with the reference to “command and oversight” replaced with “discussions with the leaders of relevant institutions.”

After dying down for a while, the “martial law preparation” talk began surfacing again when PSS commissioner Kim Yong-hyun — the one who would have received expanded powers — was named on Aug. 12 as a candidate for minister of national defense.

In particular, the Democratic Party noted that if Kim became minister, Yoon’s fellow alumni from Seoul’s Choongam High School — referred to as the “Choongam faction” — would gain control over key positions in the intelligence lineup needed for military command authority and the mobilization and control of actual troops.

President Yoon Suk-yeol stands for a photo with Kim Yong-hyun after the latter was appointed chief of the Presidential Security Service in June 2022. (courtesy of the presidential office)

Kim was one year Yoon’s senior at Choongam High, and Lt. Gen. Yeo In-hyeong, who was named as commander of the armed forces’ Defense Counterintelligence Command (DCC), is also an alumnus.

The DCC is the successor of the Defense Security Command, the organization that drafted documents in 2017 to review the option of declaring martial law while Park Geun-hye was in power. In the event that martial law is declared, the DCC would lead major investigations. It would also have the authority to establish a joint investigation headquarters, which would empower the DCC to organize and regulate investigative entities and intelligence agencies. 

It doesn’t stop there. Park Jong-seon, the head of the Defense Security Agency (DSA; often referred to as the 777 Command), the central entity tasked with collecting special intelligence on North Korea, also hails from Choongam High. So does Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, who, along with the defense minister, has the authority to recommend a martial law declaration to the president.

Yet all the facts listed so far are merely bits of circumstantial evidence that something odd is happening within the military recently, while most politicians and military personnel think that such facts do not constitute sufficient direct evidence of preparations for martial law.

The mood in the Democratic Party doesn’t seem to be any different. The Hankyoreh’s interviews of Democratic Party members on the National Defense Committee revealed a general consensus that although the recent measures enable standard exercises for the purpose of updating martial law guidelines and protocol, they do not realistically enable the kind of martial law preparations outlined in the documents drafted under Park Geun-hye. 

Regardless, it looks as if Democratic Party leaders continue to harp on martial law as a sort of “political vaccine” to prevent a disaster. 

A high-ranking party staffer close to Lee Jae-myung told the Hankyoreh on Tuesday that the martial law comments were “a sort of warning,” adding, “The people need to be aware of such developments so that they can prepare themselves should anything happen.” 

The Democratic Party suspects that although the military leadership is not making overt preparations for martial law, they are discussing potential measures to counter an impeachment of Yoon or any other sort of political upheaval. 

Regarding the Democratic Party’s rumblings of martial law, the ruling party is dismissing them as “scare-tactic politics” and “propaganda,” using the opposition’s attacks against them. 

During a party floor meeting on Tuesday, People Power Party floor leader Choo Kyung-ho declared, “Such theories [about martial law] are no more than scare tactics and propaganda based purely on imagination.” 

“The Democratic Party is clinging to the topic as a defense tactic to protect party leader Lee Jae-myung from legal prosecution and to cook up the right environment to impeach President Yoon Suk-yeol,” he went on. 

By Um Ji-won, staff reporter

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