South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol apologized to the people of the country on Saturday. Addressing the country late at night, he said that I bow my head and apologize to the people for my decision. I have handed over everything to my party. Now I will do whatever the party decides.
In fact, this week the President had imposed martial law in the country. Martial law remained in force for only six hours, because voting was done in the National Assembly (Parliament) and the President’s order was overturned. Since then, he has been the target of the main opposition Democratic Party and some other small parties. Impeachment has also been brought against him. Let’s read his full address
He said, ‘My fellow citizens, I declared emergency martial law at 11 pm on December 3. About two hours later, on December 4, at around one o’clock, I ordered the removal of martial law. I called back the armed forces. I did this according to the proposal of the National Assembly. After this, I called a cabinet meeting late at night and lifted the martial law.’
He said, ‘Martial law was declared due to frustration as the head of the nation, but in the process people suffered anxiety and trouble. I am deeply sorry for this. I sincerely apologize to those who were hurt by it. I will not escape my legal and political responsibility for this declaration of martial law. There is talk of re-imposing martial law, but let me make it clear that there will never be a second martial law.’
He said, ‘My fellow citizens, I will entrust the task of stabilizing the country, including my tenure, to my party. My party and the government will be responsible for managing the country’s affairs in the future. I want to once again bow my head and apologize for the trouble caused to the people.’
Yun Suk Yol had said that he declared martial law to protect the country’s liberal democracy from ‘anti-establishment forces’ and ‘threats posed by North Korea’. However, he did not give any further information on his decision. Meanwhile, it was being speculated that Yeol’s real anger is with the opposition Democratic Party of South Korea, which recently cut 4.1 trillion won from the country’s budget of 677 trillion won set for next year’s expenditure. On this, the President had said that the opposition has started cutting the expenditure on all the important needs for running the country.
After this entire incident, the pressure on President Yoon Suk Yeol is increasing. The opposition parties have given him an ultimatum that either he should resign from his post or be ready to face impeachment proceedings. South Korea’s main labor union has announced an indefinite strike until Yeol resigns. The union has accused him of taking anti-democracy steps. At the same time, President Yeol’s own People’s Power Party (PPP) has termed his move of imposing martial law as terrible and has demanded that the people associated with this decision should be held accountable.
