The president of South Korea has declared “emergency martial law”, accusing the country’s opposition of controlling the parliament and sympathising with North Korea.

Yoon Suk Yeol announced he was taking the step, which enacts temporary rule by the military, during a televised briefing on Tuesday, saying it was critical for defending the country’s constitutional order.

“I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea 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,” Mr Yoon said.

South Korea martial law: Follow live updates

It was not immediately clear how the steps will affect the country’s governance and democracy, but the country’s Yonhap news agency, reported that all media and publishers will be under its control and activities by parliament and political parties will be banned.

The opposition Democratic Party, which is led by Lee Jae-myung, said parliament will try to “nullify” the president’s martial law, according to South Korean news channel YTN.

YTN also reported that the leader of the country’s Ruling People Power Party, Han Dong-hoon, called the martial law “wrong” and vowed to block it.

Since taking office in 2022, Mr Yoon has struggled to push his agendas 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 bill.

Minsters protested the move on Monday by the Democratic Party to slash more than four trillion won (approximately £2.1bn) from the government’s budget proposal.

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.

Martial law is typically temporary, but it can continue indefinitely. It is most often declared in times of war and/or emergencies such as civil unrest and natural disasters.

A court in Vietnam has upheld a death sentence for a real estate tycoon after rejecting her appeal against a conviction for embezzlement and bribery, state media reported.

Truong My Lan, the chairwoman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group (VTP), was sentenced to death in April for her role in a financial fraud worth more than $12bn, Vietnam’s biggest on record.

The 68-year-old was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking rules following a month-long trial.

Lan and her accomplices were charged with illegally controlling the Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB) between 2012 and 2022 to siphon off funds through thousands of ghost companies and by paying bribes to government officials.

From early 2018 to October 2022, when the state bailed out SCB after a run on its deposits, Lan appropriated large sums by arranging unlawful loans to shell companies, investigators said.

Vietnamese news outlet VnExpress reported that if Lan can return three-quarters of the money embezzled while on death row, it is possible the sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment.

According to the outlet, the prosecution said on Tuesday: “The consequences Lan caused are unprecedented in the history of litigation and the amount of money embezzled is unprecedentedly large and unrecoverable.

“The defendant’s actions have affected many aspects of society, the financial market, the economy.”

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In scrubland on the outskirts of Tyre, southern Lebanon, they started digging out the bodies – 186 of them.

One family of women, mothers and daughters all dressed in black, fell on the coffin of their brother, their son, stroking it, sweeping the dust off, wailing.

His name was Hussein Fakih and he was a Hezbollah militant.

This was not an ordinary graveyard.

A makeshift mass grave, the corpses were mainly those of Hezbollah fighters. A temporary solution while the war was at its raging peak.

Get them in the ground quick. Bury them later.

Framed against a bright blue sky, a yellow digger scraped the topsoil off. People wore masks to protect against the overpowering stench.

Others went to the exposed coffins, wiping the dirt off the nameplates to see who the coffins contained.

We spoke to one 15-year-old boy, waiting for them to find his father Moeen Ezzedine, a senior Hezbollah commander who had been in charge of its forces in Tyre, Lebanon’s second city.

He was killed in an airstrike in early November.

“As martyr Ezzedine says, martyrdom is sweeter to us than honey: that’s how much we love martyrdom,” Mohammad said of his father.

“I am so proud of him and will stay on his path because he was martyred for the Palestinian cause.

“Hopefully I am on his path and hopefully I will meet him.”

There is no shortage of sons willing to take their fathers’ place, even if it means joining them in the ground.

A cry went up when they found Ezzedine. His sister collapsed, crying “Oh God, oh God.”

Blood and rotted matter seeped from a corner of the coffin as they turned it.

Mohammad helped carry the coffin into the ambulance and stood there watching, silent, as the doors closed.

Hezbollah’s stated aim is to destroy Israel and it is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, UK, Israel and other governments.

The group fired missiles into Israel on 8 October 2023 in support of Gaza, sparking the most recent round of violence between the two sworn enemies.

This exhumation is only possible because of the ceasefire agreed by Israel and Hezbollah. And as the diggers went about their work, UN troops drove past.

They were moving south, to take up the positions formerly held by these Hezbollah fighters, as part of the ceasefire agreement.

Read more:
Defiance or defeat? Thousands visit killed Hezbollah leader’s shrine
Hezbollah flags still fly as fragile peace deal holds

That agreement means people have been able to return to Tyre, an ancient city – and they have found fresh ruins.

Block after block has been levelled – the Israeli air force was hitting right up until the truce came into force at 4am on Wednesday.

Imad Hijazi thought his mobile phone repair shop had survived more than a year of war. But he came back to find it a wreck.

“This shop, the last day before they stopped firing, the last day, it’s damaged,” he said. “An hour before [the ceasefire].”

“I’m feeling bad, very, very bad. I’ve worked here for almost 15 years. I don’t know what to do now.”

It will probably take years for this city to recover fully.

At the grave site, people kept telling us that death – “martyrdom” as they put it – was victory.

Victory looks bleak.