South Korea president to lift martial law order after parliament voted to block it
South Korea’s president has said he will lift the emergency martial law order he had declared just hours earlier.
Yoon Suk Yeol’s decision comes after parliament voted to block the order, with the speaker of the National Assembly, Woo Won Shik, declaring it “invalid” and saying politicians would “protect democracy with the people”.
The president, who appears likely to be impeached over his actions, had said in a TV address on Tuesday night he was putting the military in temporary charge to defend the constitutional order and “eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces”.
But in a U-turn, Mr Yoon said martial law command forces have withdrawn and a cabinet meeting will be held as soon as possible.
In the end martial was in effect for about six hours.
South Korea martial law: Follow latest updates
After his earlier shock announcement, troops had entered the National Assembly building as police and protesters clashed outside and helicopters, likely to be from the military, flew overhead.
Staff barricaded the doors of the building, in the capital Seoul, to try to stop the soldiers entering.
Inside however, politicians were able to hold a vote and unanimously decided by 190-0 to block the president’s declaration.
According to the law, martial law must be lifted if the assembly votes against it – and police and soldiers were later seen leaving parliament.
Soldiers at the National Assembly compound in Seoul. Pic: Newsis/AP
Police officers clashed with protesters. Pic: AP
Lee Jae-myung, who heads the opposition liberal Democratic Party, which holds the majority in the 300-seat parliament, said anyone acting under the orders of Mr Yoon or the martial law edict was now “breaking the law”.
Despite the vote, the defence ministry told reporters it would uphold the order “until the president lifts [it]”.
Staff in parliament barricaded doors to stop soldiers entering. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
The president had said in his earlier TV address that martial law was necessary to protect “from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order”.
The declaration was the first since the country’s democratisation in 1987.
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Moment emergency martial law announced
UK ‘deeply concerned’
Following the announcement, the military said parliament and other political gatherings were suspended and the media was under its control, reported Yonhap news agency.
US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell said the White House was watching with “grave concern” while Britain’s minister for the Indo-Pacific, Catherine West, said the UK was “deeply concerned”.
She advised Britons to monitor and follow Foreign Office advice and said its Seoul embassy was “in touch with the Korean authorities”.
“We call for a peaceful resolution to the situation, in accordance with the law and the constitution of the Republic of Korea,” said Ms West.
South Korea’s democracy was tested – and its people rose to the occasion
People power appears to have prevailed in South Korea, defanging a last ditch attempt by a beleaguered lame duck president to declare martial law.
President Yoon’s gambit has backfired spectacularly.
His bombshell announcement late at night led not to a swift imposition of military rule, but instead galvanised popular opposition.
Protesters raced to the country’s parliament allowing MPs inside to vote to overturn the rogue president’s martial law plan.
There was a tense standoff between protesters and police but no violence.
The swift response seized the initiative from the president who was left with little option but to backdown. He now faces investigation by his political opponents along with his minister for national defence who they say was also complicit.
President Yoon may be familiar to some from a viral video showing him crooning American Pie in a soft soothing baritone in an impromptu performance in the White House.
He was not a conventional political performer and has been embroiled in deepening political difficulty since his party lost its parliamentary majority in this year’s elections.
He is now in a world of political pain as he prepares to pay the price for his extraordinarily rash move.
South Korea itself emerges from the episode with less to worry about.
It may have been unnerving, but the constitution, the parliament and the people appear to have weathered the storm and risen to the moment.
South Korea’s democracy has been tested and proven resilient in an unprecedentedly challenging few hours.
Scandals and a government in crisis
Since taking office in 2022, President Yoon has struggled to push his agenda against an opposition-controlled parliament.
His conservative People Power Party has been in a deadlock with the liberal Democratic Party over next year’s budget.
Ministers protested the move on Monday by the Democratic Party to slash more than four trillion won (approximately £2.1bn) from the government’s proposal.
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Crowds gather outside South Korean parliament
Pic: AP
Mr Yoon said that action undermines the essential functioning of government administration.
The president has also dismissed calls for independent investigations into scandals involving his wife and top officials, which has drawn criticism from his political rivals.
Security and defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke told Sky News the government in South Korea has been in “crisis” for a couple of years.
The president made the martial law announcement on Tuesday night. Pic: AP
“Yoon has been leading a minority government for some time, against him the Democratic Party have just frustrated whatever he has tried to do,” Clarke said.
“He has decided to get ahead of his opposition by creating this move.
“The last thing that liberal democracy needs at the moment is one of the democracies of Asia turning into a short-term dictatorship, so I think this is only a short-term parliamentary manoeuvre, but it may turn out to be more.”
Martial law is typically temporary, but can continue indefinitely. It is most often declared in times of war and/or emergencies such as civil unrest and natural disasters.
South Korea’s previous period of martial law was in October 1979.
The Syrian presidency has announced it’s assembling a special taskforce to try to stop nearly a week of sectarian clashes in the southern Druze city of Sweida.
The presidency called for restraint on all sides and said it is making strenuous efforts to “stop the fighting and curb the violations that threaten the security of the citizens and the safety of society”.
By early Saturday morning, a ceasefire had been confirmed by the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, who posted on X that Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire supported by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The post went on to state that this agreement had the support of “Turkey, Jordan and its neighbours” and called upon the Druze, Bedouins, and Sunni factions to put down their arms.
Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford reports from the road leading to Sweida, the city that has become the epicentre of Syria’s sectarian violence.
For the past 24 hours, we’ve watched as Syria‘s multiple Arab tribes began mobilising in the Sweida province to help defend their Bedouin brethren.
Thousands travelled from multiple different Syrian areas and had reached the edge of Sweida city by Friday nightfall after a day of almost non-stop violent clashes and killings.
“We have come to protect the [Arab] Bedouin women and children who are being terrorised by the Druze,” they told us.
Arab fighters said they had come to protect the Bedouin women and children
Fighters at a petrol station
Every shop and every home in the streets leading up to Sweida city has been burned or ransacked, the contents destroyed or looted.
We saw tribal fighters loading the back of pickup trucks and driving away from the city with vehicles packed with looted goods from Druze homes.
Shops and homes leading up to Sweida city have been burned or ransacked
Several videos posted online showed violence against the Druze, including one where tribal fighters force three men to throw themselves off a high-rise balcony and are seen being shot as they do so.
Doctors at the nearby community hospital in Buser al Harir said there had been a constant stream of casualties being brought in. As we watched, another dead fighter was carried out of an ambulance.
The medics estimated there had been more than 600 dead in their area alone. “The youngest child who was killed was a one-and-a-half-year-old baby,” one doctor told us.
Doctors said there had been a constant stream of casualties due to violence
The violence is the most dangerous outbreak of sectarian clashes since the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime last December – and the most serious challenge for the new leader to navigate.
The newly brokered deal is aimed at ending the sectarian killings and restoring some sort of stability in a country which is emerging from more than a decade of civil war.
Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the US ambassador to Turkey has said.
Several hundred people have reportedly been killed this week in the south of Syria in violence involving local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.
As the violence escalated in the southern province of Sweida, Israel launched airstrikes, including attacks on Wednesday on the defence ministry in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
In a post on X, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and others.
“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Mr Barrack said in a post on X.
The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian Consulate in Canada did not immediately comment or respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.
The ceasefire announcement came after the US worked to put an end to the conflict, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying on Wednesday that steps had been agreed to end a “troubling and horrifying situation”.
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Why is Israel bombing Syria?
After Israel warned it would destroy forces attacking Syrian Druze, Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa told the minority group in a televised statement on Thursday that “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.
He then claimed Israel has “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.
It comes after the United Nations’ migration agency said earlier on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced in the region since violence broke out on Sunday.
It also said that essential services, including water and electricity, had collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems were widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa were under severe strain.
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At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.
A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.
The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).
Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.
The training centre in east LA. Pic: NBC Los Angeles
Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.
“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”
California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.
“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.
Media and law enforcement officials near the explosion site. Pic: AP
The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.
The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.
“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.
“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.
The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
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