On 3 December 2024, at 22:27 Korea Standard Time (KST), Yoon Suk Yeol, the then-president of South Korea, attempted a self-coup by declaring martial law during a televised address. In the address, he accused the Democratic Party (DPK), which held a majority in the National Assembly, of engaging in "anti-state activities" and collaborating with "North Korean communists" to undermine the country, describing their dominance as a "legislative dictatorship". The declaration suspended political activities, including sessions of the National Assembly and local legislatures, and imposed restrictions on the press. Yoon ordered the arrest of several political opponents, including leaders of both the DPK and his own People Power Party (PPP). It was the first declaration of martial law in South Korea since the military dictatorship of General Chun Doo-hwan in 1980.
The declaration was opposed by both parties and resulted in protests. At 01:02 on 4 December, 190 legislators who had arrived at the National Assembly Proceeding Hall unanimously passed a motion to lift martial law, despite attempts by the Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command to prevent the vote. At 04:30, Yoon and his cabinet lifted martial law and soon disbanded the Martial Law Command. The opposition began impeachment proceedings against Yoon and said it would continue to do so if he did not resign. Uproar over the declaration led to the resignation of several officials in Yoon's administration, including Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who had urged Yoon to enact martial law shortly before the declaration and was second-in-command of the martial law order. Yoon, military officers, and other officials of Yoon's administration were investigated for their role in the implementation of the decree.
On 7 December, Yoon issued an apology for declaring martial law. The next day, the former Defense Minister Kim was arrested and sent to a detention facility for his role in the martial law order, where he attempted suicide shortly before a warrant could be filed against him. On 12 December, Yoon said that he would "fight to the end" and that the martial law declaration was an "act of governance" to protect against anti-state forces. It is more widely believed that the declaration was motivated by political issues with the DPK-controlled Assembly over repeated impeachment attempts against officials, opposition to his budget, and various scandals involving him and his wife Kim Keon Hee.
Yoon was impeached on 14 December by the National Assembly and suspended from office pending a final ruling by the Constitutional Court on whether to confirm his removal from the presidency. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo served as acting president until he himself was impeached on 27 December, making Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok acting president. However, Han's impeachment was overturned by the Constitutional Court on 24 March 2025, reinstating him as acting president. Yoon was arrested on 15 January 2025. On 26 January, he was indicted for leading an insurrection, becoming the first sitting president to be arrested and indicted in South Korean history. On 4 April, the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld Yoon's impeachment and removal from office over the martial law declaration. On 19 February 2026, Yoon and other figures involved in the incident were found guilty on insurrection charges. Yoon was sentenced to life in prison, while Kim Yong-hyun was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
On 3 December 2024, at 22:27 Korea Standard Time (KST), Yoon Suk Yeol, the then-president of South Korea, attempted a self-coup by declaring martial law during a televised address. In the address, he accused the Democratic Party (DPK), which held a majority in the National Assembly, of engaging in "anti-state activities" and collaborating with "North Korean communists" to undermine the country, describing their dominance as a "legislative dictatorship". The declaration suspended political activities, including sessions of the National Assembly and local legislatures, and imposed restrictions on the press. Yoon ordered the arrest of several political opponents, including leaders of both the DPK and his own People Power Party (PPP). It was the first declaration of martial law in South Korea since the military dictatorship of General Chun Doo-hwan in 1980.
The declaration was opposed by both parties and resulted in protests. At 01:02 on 4 December, 190 legislators who had arrived at the National Assembly Proceeding Hall unanimously passed a motion to lift martial law, despite attempts by the Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Command to prevent the vote. At 04:30, Yoon and his cabinet lifted martial law and soon disbanded the Martial Law Command. The opposition began impeachment proceedings against Yoon and said it would continue to do so if he did not resign. Uproar over the declaration led to the resignation of several officials in Yoon's administration, including Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who had urged Yoon to enact martial law shortly before the declaration and was second-in-command of the martial law order. Yoon, military officers, and other officials of Yoon's administration were investigated for their role in the implementation of the decree.
On 7 December, Yoon issued an apology for declaring martial law. The next day, the former Defense Minister Kim was arrested and sent to a detention facility for his role in the martial law order, where he attempted suicide shortly before a warrant could be filed against him. On 12 December, Yoon said that he would "fight to the end" and that the martial law declaration was an "act of governance" to protect against anti-state forces. It is more widely believed that the declaration was motivated by political issues with the DPK-controlled Assembly over repeated impeachment attempts against officials, opposition to his budget, and various scandals involving him and his wife Kim Keon Hee.
Yoon was impeached on 14 December by the National Assembly and suspended from office pending a final ruling by the Constitutional Court on whether to confirm his removal from the presidency. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo served as acting president until he himself was impeached on 27 December, making Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok acting president. However, Han's impeachment was overturned by the Constitutional Court on 24 March 2025, reinstating him as acting president. Yoon was arrested on 15 January 2025. On 26 January, he was indicted for leading an insurrection, becoming the first sitting president to be arrested and indicted in South Korean history. On 4 April, the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld Yoon's impeachment and removal from office over the martial law declaration. On 19 February 2026, Yoon and other figures involved in the incident were found guilty on insurrection charges. Yoon was sentenced to life in prison, while Kim Yong-hyun was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Yoon has been criticized for far-right political views. His administration had low approval ratings, reaching as low as 17%; in a November 2024 survey, 58% of the population supported either Yoon's resignation or impeachment. Yoon struggled to achieve his agenda due to opposition from the National Assembly, controlled by the opposition Democratic Party (DPK) since 2020. In the April 2024 legislative election, the opposition retained its majority, but lacked the two-thirds majority (200 out of 300) required under the constitution to impeach the president.
Yoon boycotted the opening of the National Assembly, even though it is customary for the president to deliver a speech at the event. Yoon also opposed investigations into scandals involving his wife Kim Keon-hee and top officials, vetoing three separate bills that called for a special counsel investigation into his wife, the third occurring on 26 November 2024. On 2 December 2024, the opposition-controlled parliament moved to impeach Board of Audit and Inspection Chair Choe Jae-hae and three prosecutors involved in two scandals surrounding Kim, and rejected the government's 2025 budget proposal.
Early planning of martial law
During prosecution questioning, former Defense Counterintelligence Command (DCC) commander Lieutenant General Yeo In-hyung testified that President Yoon first mentioned "taking emergency action" to address "difficult social issues" in late December 2023, which Yeo interpreted as referring to the martial law declaration. At the end of March 2024, President Yoon invited the then-Defense Minister Shin Won-sik, National Intelligence Service Director Cho Tae-yong, and Presidential Security Service Director Kim Yong-hyun for dinner and reportedly expressed his intention to "declare martial law soon". At the dinner, Minister Shin and Director Cho expressed their opposition. Minister Shin, concerned about the implementation of martial law, called Director Kim and then-DCC commander Yeo in private right after the dinner to discuss blocking any such moves. Yeo added that Yoon started mentioning martial law more often following the PPP's defeat in the April 2024 legislative election. Eventually, Shin was shuffled out of the role of Defense Minister to become Director of the Office of National Security, while Kim Yong-hyun was selected to replace Shin in September 2024. The 27 December 2024 unsealed indictment of Kim Yong-hyun revealed that President Yoon met with former Minister Kim, Commander Yeo, and others about 10 times since March 2024 to discuss the imposition of martial law.
Warnings of a plot to declare martial law
In October 2021, years before the declaration of martial law, Yoon made complimentary remarks about the former authoritarianmilitary dictator of South Korea, Chun Doo-hwan. The remarks came during a meeting with People Power Party officials in Busan, during which Yoon said that "many people still consider Chun as having done well in politics, except the military coup and the Gwangju Uprising", later adding that he believed even people in Honam, the geographic area including Gwangju, felt the same way.
After Yoon was elected president, when asked about the possibility of pressure and protests by opposition parties and citizens, Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun responded: "Why worry about it? Just declare martial law and sweep it all away." Yoon began appointing his fellow Chungam High School alumni as high-ranking figures in his administration and the military, a group referred to as the Chungam Faction. Throughout his political career, several of Defense Minister Kim's former high school alumni said that his favorite book to read was Adolf Hitler's autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf. DPK Representative Choo Mi-ae confirmed this during a televised interview, which added to many people's suspicion that Kim, having risen to such a powerful position within both the military and the government, may have been driven by darker instincts rather than a sense of duty to national security.
In September 2024, three months before the martial law declaration, some DPK politicians began suggesting that Yoon was preparing martial law. Party leader Lee Jae Myung alluded to "speculation about martial law preparations", saying that Yoon appointing Kim Yong-hyun as Defense Minister was a part of a martial law strategy to prevent Kim Keon-hee from going to prison. Kim Min-seok, member of the party's Supreme Council, stated: "I have well-founded reasons to believe that the conservative Yoon administration is drawing up a contingency plan to declare martial law." The Presidential Office dismissed this claim as "groundless". People Power Party floor leader Choo Kyung-ho also denied the possibility of martial law, saying "Such theories ... are no more than scare tactics and propaganda based purely on imagination".
Kim Min-seok justified his prediction of a martial law declaration by Yoon by adding that he was "one of the people who obtained information and reported that the government was preparing to invoke martial law during the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye" in 2016, despite denials by the Park government at the time. A document was produced in secret by the Defense Security Command (now the Defense Counterintelligence Command) in February 2017 that considered invoking martial law in anticipation of continued street protests if Park Geun-hye was not removed by the Constitutional Court. The 67-page document titled "Wartime Martial Law and Joint Action Plan" contained specific plans including mobilizing tanks to suppress candlelight protests in Gwanghwamun in the event that the impeachment of Park was dismissed, and arresting and detaining lawmakers to prevent the National Assembly from reaching the quorum required to lift martial law if lawmakers attempted to do so (similar to the martial law plans of 2024).
Several South Korean Defense Ministers have had major roles in either declarations of martial law or self-coups in the past, with the most notable examples being Song Yo-chan, who declared martial law and demanded the resignation of President Syngman Rhee; and Chung Ho-yong, who had complicity in the Gwangju Uprising. During his confirmation hearing for Minister of National Defense at the National Assembly on 2 September 2024, Kim Yong-hyun was asked by members of the opposition as to whether he would declare martial law or recommend Yoon to do so. He replied: "I think talk about martial law is out of date; if it is declared, who would accept it? Do you think the military would even follow the order?" Kim was also questioned on his close personal ties with Yoon, as the two have known each other since high school. Kim took office as Minister of National Defense on 6 September. Over the following three months, he allegedly planned military rule under martial law.
Following the botched martial law implementation, Kim Min-seok cited the Yoon administration's usage of the term "anti-state forces", and the existence of the Chungam Faction as indications of Yoon's ulterior motive for martial law. He added that Yoon's government "is so bad at governance that they have no way of preventing their replacement other than martial law, terrorism, and mobilizing the legal system against their opponents". Documents obtained by Choo Mi-ae showed that the DCC had prepared documents and other related material on declaring martial law following orders from its commander, Lieutenant General Yeo In-hyung, in November 2024. Police investigators also found that Defense Intelligence Command chief Major General Moon Sang-ho, his predecessor, Roh Sang-won and former military police commander of the 3rd Field Army Command Kim Yong-gun also met at a Lotteria fast food restaurant in Ansan on 1 December to discuss preparations for the declaration. The Chungam Faction whom Yoon and Kim appointed to high ranking positions and cited as having a role in the martial law declaration were commander of the Defense Counterintelligence CommandYeo In-hyung, Chief of the Army Special Warfare CommandKwak Jong-geun, commander of the Defense Security Agency of the Defense Intelligence Agency Park Jong-seon, commander of the Capital Defense Command Lee Jin-woo, Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, director of the Planning and Management Office of the Counterintelligence Command Park Sung-ha, and Chief of the 101st Security Brigade Hwang Se-young.
Yoon and Kim met each other while attending Chungam High School. Kim also allegedly knew Yeo In-hyung subsequent to his graduation. Since the other members of the faction graduated years apart from both Yoon and Kim, they did not know them personally. It is alleged that Yoon met them sometime during his presidential campaign. The Chungam Faction has been compared to the Hanahoe faction of former dictator Chun Doo-hwan and his successor Roh Tae-woo.
Attempts to provoke North Korean crisis to justify martial law
On 1 December, two days before martial law was declared, colonel-level commanders were called to be on guard for an imminent provocation by North Korea, with DCC Commander Yeo In-hyung giving orders to prepare for a "serious North Korean filth balloon situation". During police investigations into the martial law declaration, a memo was recovered from a notebook owned by former Army Maj. Gen. Roh Sang-won, former chief of the Defense Intelligence Command, in his residence in Ansan. The memo reportedly contained details of a plot to provoke North Korea by causing an incident along the Northern Limit Line. On 14 February 2025, the Hankyoreh reported that the notebook included, in addition to the North Korean plans, plans for detaining about 500 public figures and abolishing term limits to allow Yoon to potentially serve 3 terms. On 21 July 2025, Maj. Gen. Kim Yong-dae, head of the Drone Operations Command, was suspended from duty over suspicions that military drones were illegally dispatched to North Korea as part of preparations for Yoon's imposition of martial law.
Martial law powers and past occurrences
Martial law was a recurring tool used by military leaders to suppress dissent and consolidate power in South Korea's authoritarian, dictatorial past until the end of the Fifth Republic of Korea with the June Democratic Struggle of 1987, when South Korea transitioned to democracy under the Sixth Republic. This was the first time martial law had been declared in South Korea since the 1980 military coup d'état after the assassination of dictator Park Chung Hee, and the restoration of civil liberties in 1987. This was the 17th since the foundation of the republic in 1948.
According to the Martial Law Act, the declaration of martial law or alteration in its nature by the President shall undergo deliberation by the State Council. The Minister of National Defense or the Minister of the Interior and Safety may suggest the declaration of martial law to the President through the Prime Minister. Under Article 77 of the constitution, the president must immediately notify the National Assembly when declaring martial law. This enables special measures to be taken, including reducing the need for arrest warrants and restricting freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and association. The National Assembly can lift martial law by a simple majority vote. The president has no authority to suspend the Assembly by any means, and "during the enforcement of martial law, no member of the Assembly shall be arrested or detained unless he/she is caught in the act of committing a crime".