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But in a U-turn, Mr Yoon said martial law command forces have withdrawn and a cabinet meeting will be held as soon as possible.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.
Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.
Warning: This article contains details of child deaths
Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.
Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.
Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.
In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.
The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.
“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack
Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.
Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.
Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.
Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.
Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
‘No political or military connections’
Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.
“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”
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Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies
He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”
Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
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Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
World
UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes
The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.
He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’
Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.
The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.
Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.
Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza
The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.
The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.
The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.
Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.
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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.
An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.
They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.
Police at the scene. Pic: AP
Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive.
The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.
The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.
A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.
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Four tracks at the station were closed in the evening, and some long-distance trains were delayed or diverted.
Hamburg is Germany‘s second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.
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