South Korea’s Reckoning of Martial Law

June 9th, 2025

Arnav Goyal

After former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ill-fated declaration to impose martial law, South Korea was plunged into a state of chaos. The President aimed to get rid of “North Korean influence” in South Korean politics, and aimed to wield power, at a time where his approval ratings were tanking and his leadership, especially after scandal upon scandal, was put into high degrees of question. Within this martial law, soldiers barricaded the National Assembly to prevent sitting members of parliament from voting. Yet one member gained attenton for defying that, and creating an opposition movement that would eventually pave his way to the presidency.

Lee Jae Myung, the opposition leader, live streamed himself climbing over a fence into the National Assembly, so that he could vote on a bill to end martial law. Soon after, many others started to jump over the fence. His video soon went viral, and in turn boosted his popularity at a time when he had 5 major investigations going on (on things such as corruption and bribery), while also showing a major resistance movement to Yoon’s deeply unpopular declaration. Eventually, after a successful attempt to stop martial law, President Yoon backed down 6 hours later. But the saga didn’t end there.

Lee Jae Myung climbing over the fence

On June 3, 2025, exactly 6 months after the martial law crisis, South Koreans took to the polls in an election which was widely heralded as a referendum on Martial Law. The 3 major candidates were Kim Moon Soo of the People Power Party (will be called PPP throughout), the same party of Yoon Suk Yeol, Lee Jae Myung of the Democratic Party, and Lee Jun Seok, of the Reform Party.

This election was widely regarded as a reckoning of martial law, and reflected the fraught nature of South Korean Politics. After President Yoon was overwhelmingly impeached by the Supreme Court, a new election was declared and campaign season started. The PPP had major infighting in terms of who to select as their candidate, but eventually settled on former Labor minister Kim Moon Soo. However, a new party also popped up, that being the Reform Party, made up of disillusioned members of both parties. The leader of Reform, Lee Jun Seok, was the former leader of the PPP.

Moreover, candidates faced the shadow of the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, and their actions on what they would do. With that, they faced rising tensions with North Korea, exacerbated by Leader Kim Jong Un’s nuclear drills that are pertained as a direct threat to South Korea. Lee Jae Myung advocated for a more pragmatic approach to North Korea, while Kim Moon Soo advocated for a more hardline approach, similar to former President Yoon.

The polling showed a Democratic Party landslide, attributed to 3 factors:

Unpopularity on PPP leadership, obviously because of Yoon’s martial law
Huge gender polarization, with Lee Jun Seok actually winning a plurality of roughly 37% of young men (due to his targeting of them and staunch anti-feminism), while Lee Jae Myung won an overwhelming majority of young women, with 58%
Vote splitting between the PPP and Reform, due to Lee Jun Seok’s previous ties and leadership within the PPP

Top bar is men, bottom bar is women, Blue is the Democrats, Red is the PPP, Orange is Reform

In the end, Lee Jae Myung was elected with just over 49% of the vote, then Kim Moon Soo with 41%, and Lee Jun Seok at 8%. This election’s turnout was the highest in nearly 30 years. Lee Jae Myung’s election signaled a shift to normalcy in South Korean politics, and most hope that his election will bring about a new age in the political system there. However, some questions still swirl around how Lee’s criminal cases will be able to be navigated, especially with high-profile ones like his corruption case when he was mayor. Yet, one thing is clear. A man who unified an opposition to martial law, through viral videos and campaigning, successfully unified that opposition behind him as well.

Extemp Analysis by Finian Knepper

Question: What is the future for South Korea’s PPP after Yoon’s failed attempt to declare martial law?

AGD’s: Bring out your funnies - because that’s definitely what’s best for this topic. Martial law was avoided, and no-one was hurt. That’s a good thing! Don’t be afraid to make the light mood lighter.

BG: As always, background is crucial here. Without knowing what happened with Yoon declaring martial law - your judge will be very confused about your points.

Thesis and main points: For this question, I recommend cause-effect substructure. Focus on a specific aspect of Yoon's martial law scandal (structure this subpoint by describing that part of the scandal and then its effect) before moving into its effects for the PPP party. End each point with a solid impact: put the effect into numbers, summarize it with a power line, or narrow it down by connecting it to a specific party member and how it has/will affect them.