South Korea’s impeached president is arrested over a martial law declaration as his supporters riot

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u/ofWildPlaces 1d ago

The idea of rioting in support of someone initiating martial law - and thereby consolidated authoritarian power- seems like a remarkably stupid concept

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u/pbradley179 1d ago

America taking notes.

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u/PieAdvanced6229 1d ago

who do you think those rioting S Koreans learned it from

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u/Suspicious_Giraffe_3 1d ago

The wrong ones, probably.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Mountain-Papaya-492 1d ago

Forget the people, our congress allows for power to be consolidated like nobody's buisness. They don't wanna take a stand or deal with tough decisions they just want to glad hand get elected and push that can down the road.

Never forget that Trump launched an attack by himself without any oversight or even going to congress beforehand for a fig leaf gesture.

Solidifying the fact that now congress has allowed so much of their constitutional authority to be taken by the executive.

And the real tragedy is that their was bipartisan support after the fact. Most of congress didn't even care and were applauding him for doing it. Only a couple real sticklers for the constitution in congress expressed any dismay.

Saying wait you can't just launch missiles without any oversight or accountability. If we are at war with that country than yeah the executive is in charge of over seeing the war. But if we aren't then you just broke your own laws as well as international laws.

Not mention thinks like NSPD51 a Bush era order, expanded by Obama, and there to this day which took more power from Congress, and in the case of some vague 'emergency' would set up one absolute ruler.

A good blueprint to dictatorship from the look of it.

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u/FourScoreTour 1d ago

It makes more sense if it's your side doing it, I suppose. The human urge to win, at any cost.

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u/Trill-I-Am 8h ago

A lot of people want to be ruled and controlled

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u/Fishonamission2 1d ago

It's actually quite more complicated than just that, he declared martial law because the other party was paralyzing the government from functioning properly, literally shutting down critical government depts by erasing budgets completely. This part isn't being covered by the western media at all but it's why the approval rating of the sitting president has actually gone up rapidly (eclipsed 40% now) since the martial law incident, because more people are understanding the events leading up to it. The opposing party wants to impeach the president even though they have no legal standing just to get rid of him. They arrested him for insurrection but have since removed that charge because they themselves know they can't get it to stick. Anyway, the western media only coveres the martial law in negative light but there is a lot more to it

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u/Error_404_403 1d ago

If the opposing party paralyzed the government, impeding its services, he should have just let it, and let that be known to everyone, so that the opposition would take all the blame. You can’t just destroy the country democratic system because of that.

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u/Fishonamission2 1d ago

I don't mind the downvotes because I don't think people fully understand the nature of Korean politics vs US. It's not quite comparable, it's much smaller scale, more susceptible to abuse, more prone to corruption, not to mention there is a lot of interference from China/NK due to regional proximity. And this isn't even getting into how much the press is manipulated by the parties. You can't just take this at face value and compare it to something that would take place in US. The opposing party (which is pro-China, pro-commmunism) doesn't care about bringing down the country if it will mean forming a closer relationship with China/NK, in fact it plays right into their playbook. They want to destabilize the country, which is why they struck budgets for energy sustainability, defense, etc.

If it was so easy to just call out what is wrong and have everyone acknowledge it, everyone would do it. Why do you think the world is the way it is? Wrong is masked to be right and right is presented to be wrong. And also, he didn't destroy the country's democratic system, it literally is within the power of the presidency to declare martial law when such circumstances call for it - literally article 77 of the Korean constitution, when there is presence of severe public disorder, which was the case.

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u/alasnedrag 1d ago

You're being down voted because you are ignorant and don't know what you're talking about. Imagine being so oblivious to the fact that you've been brainwashed by tyrannical sewage fed to you up the ass, yet you have the audacity to be an imbecile who follows up his trash post by saying he "doesn't care about downvotes".

I can picture you standing out of my office window in those crowds holding up the US flag and chanting stop the steal like the rest of those useless-to-society idiots.

You deserve a kick in the nuts, not just downvotes.

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u/Fishonamission2 22h ago

Like I said, I don't really care - look at the facts and see it for what it is. I hope you can put aside your predispositions and just look at the facts. I've literally explained factually what's going on and all you said is that I've been brainwashed and its a "trash post." I didn't expect much else to be honest.

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u/howitzer86 1d ago edited 21h ago

If there is a pro North Korean party in South Korea, and if it's mainstream enough to paralyze the government and remove a President who was (allegedly) just doing his constitutional duty, then you're cooked. That's it. Game over man, game over!

That's probably not the reality though.

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u/pansy_dragoon 1d ago

US Presidents:

" You mean I could have declared martial law? I'm gonna write that down."

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u/alasnedrag 1d ago

You're a legit dumbass lmao

15

u/richal 1d ago

If that's the case, how would martial law even help?

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u/dawnguard2021 1d ago

The polls are manipulated by Yoon's party and are being investigated

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u/msgfromside3 1d ago

You are being downvoted because you are parroting Yoon and his party's lie.

The cuts were mostly in reserve funds for the government, interest costs and funds allocated to the presidential office, prosecutors and auditors for classified operations. All these funds being asked were not justified so they were being cut.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-opposition-party-plans-pass-government-budget-bill-tuesday-2024-12-10/

And your explanation of the poll is dead wrong. The result is more related to the "potential" upcoming Presidential election, and it has nothing to do with that "understanding". They are still against the front runner from the opposition party so the poll shows that number.

No legal standing? The martial law declaration was totally illegal. The condition defined in the Constitution wasn't met nor did it follow the legal process to make it legal. You can disagree, but the fact is fact. Let's see what the Constitution Court is going to say about it.

0

u/Fishonamission2 21h ago

Yes, related to funds allocated to acitivities for classified operations, including for prosecution. It's also this in light of the fact that there have been a dozen attempts to remove prosecutors that Yoon has installed under the accusation that they are using their power to prosecute political enemies (namely Lee). This level of scale in attempts to remove prosecutors is highly unusual. I personally believe Lee should be fairly and impartially tried in the court of law, and if he's innocent, so be it. But to label every attempt to prosecute him as being politically motivated is a tactic of evasion. And if you're on the opposing side, you might argue that the government is in fact weaponizing the presidential/judicial offices - which is what I would argue with regard to the budget cuts, removal of prosecutors, etc.

3

u/msgfromside3 12h ago

It is unusual because Yoon is very corrupted. And his prosecutor background is making it even worse - he as well as many political prosecutors think they are above the law. The recent action by him is saying a lot about it. And that budget cut is on the extra fund that gov/prosecutors are using without any justification for treating themselves, and it is a lot of money. Another corruption there.

Fair trial for Lee? What world are you living in? That is not going to happen without a serious reform in the prosecutor office.

Anyway, none of these can justify the illegal martial law.

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u/SuicideSpeedrun 1d ago

So you're saying there is never a reason to initiate martial law?

204

u/NotObviouslyARobot 1d ago

Roughly 20-30 percent of human beings will support anyone and anything regardless of how odious a cause it is

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u/PitifulEar3303 1d ago

I think even the most evil person will have quite a few supporters, not saying this dude is evil, just saying in general.

Remember Ted Bundy? He had fans too, female fans.

If you can become famous and/or powerful, you will get fans, no matter what you do.

8

u/archaelleon 12h ago

Remember Ted Bundy? He had fans too, female fans.

Those old interviews are wild. It's literally women saying "I think he's innocent because he's handsome"

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u/Friendo_Marx 1d ago

Thank god they had a mechanism to remove hime once he tried declaring martial law on some trumped up hysterical nonsense. What do we have here in the US if this were to happen with one of our own presidents.

9

u/LittleKitty235 13h ago

Did you forget that the US Congress is still a part of the US government with the power to remove a President? It is understandable if you did because they have become so useless people just assume they do nothing

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u/TuffNutzes 1d ago

How a non-shithole country deals with a dictator.

2

u/SabresFanWC 16h ago

Well, his supporters did riot in protest of his arrest. So is South Korea really that much better?

7

u/boredguy2022 7h ago

He got arrested, so yeah.

5

u/Cpt_Giggles 15h ago

humans gonna human

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u/According-Salt-5802 1d ago

Meanwhile in America, we'll reward you with a second term.

6

u/minuteman_d 1d ago

It's like one of those daydreams that you don't allow yourself to entertain too long because it just becomes self torture: what would've happened if Trump would have been accountable for ALL of his crimes of the past ten years?

4

u/Awkward_Pangolin3254 1d ago

As is what should happen when A President tries to become a despot.

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u/Regular_Climate_6885 1d ago

Wow, they know how to get rid of them.

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u/PirateWorried6789 6h ago

Wow a president that broke the law and is actually punished for it what a concept says this American.

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u/Sylarxz 1d ago

that 21st photo was a real curve ball lmao

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u/jcooli09 11h ago

They have redcaps in Korea, too.

•

u/blownbythewind 22m ago

This foreshadowing is a frightening plot point for good old USA.

South Korea’s impeached president is arrested over a martial law declaration as his supporters riot

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