South Korea has always been considered a beacon of democracy since its transition to democracy from the 1979 dictatorial regime under General Chun Doo-Hwan. This was the outcome of the political protests by the vigilant citizens and students of Chonnam National University, which is often termed the Gwangju uprising. However, South Korea has a bitter past as well, which has questioned its democratic setup. Since its independence, the country has been under Martial law, a type of national emergency, many times. Despite that, Korea is considered a full democracy by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which is the 2nd country to get the status in Asia after Japan.

Since 1980, South Korea’s politics has been very smooth and is under a liberal democratic setup, with a popularly elected National Assembly and a Multi-party system like India. Still, the country had to go through the very recent political turmoil in December 2024 when the Popularly Elected President imposed martial law in the country. President Yoon Suk Yeol of the People's Power Party, who was elected in the 2022 elections, had tried to put the country under martial law, by declaring on the late night of 3rd December 2024. This was a sudden step by the president without any political consideration beforehand, which created a ruckus environment in major cities such as Seoul, Incheon, and Gwangju. The president provided few reasons for the imposition of martial law, as the opposition is involved in anti-state activities to destabilize the government, and a close connection between the opposition and North Korean communist forces. Also, the government was not able to pass many laws as the National Assembly was dominated by the opposition parties. However, these were considered as excuses as the president wanted to grab political power, cause he was losing his political control.

Moreover, the martial law imposition had a very short tenure as the President was forced to withdraw it within 6-7 hours. After the declaration, the country saw immense protests even in front of the National Assembly as the Armed forces tried to block the entrance to the assembly. An emergency meeting was called by the opposition and ruling party in the mid the night, on an urgent basis to discuss the unforeseen situation in the country. The parliament passed a motion to declare the Martial law invalid with a vote of 190/300. Moreover, his party members didn’t support him for the unconstitutional declaration. Defection was seen among his party members. According to Article 77 of the Republic of Korea’s constitution, martial law can only be imposed in case of War, Armed conflict, or a similar national emergency.

Even if Martial law had a very short tenure this time, people were not happy with the president for this and demanded his impeachment from the parliament. On December 14, the National Assembly impeached the President with a popular vote of 204 out of 300. President Yoon lost his presidential powers and was removed from the party. His approval ratings also dropped to less than 12% by January as people felt betrayed due to his intentions to destabilize the democratic setup of the country. After this, power was vested in the Prime Minister Han Duck Soo, who became the acting president for the time being. Hence, after a long political chaos, the constitutional court of Korea finally removed Yoon from office on 4th April.

As the country was not ruled by any elected president now, it was constitutionally necessary to elect the new president again within 60 days of impeachment. Thus, the acting president/ PM Han Duck-Soo declared 3rd June as the election day with the approval of the cabinet. The National Election Commissioner (NEC) prepared everything for the fair elections to be held. South Korea has a multi-party election system where various political parties contest to win the election for the 300 seats, with 253 elected directly and the rest through a proportional representation system. Despite a Multi-Party setup, the major rivalry has been between the Democratic Party (DP), which is politically left and liberal, and the People Power Party (PPP), which is politically right and conservative. This time, the presidential nominee from DP was Lee Jae-Myung, and Kim Moon Soo from PPP. Also, another major contender was Lee Jung Seok from the Reform Party and several other independent candidates.

As the elections were held on 3rd June, the opposition party, i.e, the Democratic Party, got an edge over the ruling party due to the hostile situation in the country for martial law imposition by PPP’s President. Thus, the Opposition candidate Lee Jae Myung won the election with a support of 49.12% of popular votes against the 41% of votes received by the People Power Party. This election saw the major voter turnout since 1997 at 79%. Also, the country could be seen divided between the supporters, with the DP in the whole West and the PPP in the whole East. The newly elected president from DP assured the citizens of his four important 4 tasks- Restoring Democracy, Economic stability, protecting the rights of citizens, and maintaining a peaceful Korean peninsula. The Democratic Party's inclination towards North Korea is to discuss through dialogues and maintain good relations with both China and the USA. However, the newly elected president has many issues to tackle in the international arena, such as the Trade war with the USA, balancing relations with both North Korea and China.

The mid-election showed the same results that India had to go through by its emergency imposition back in 1975, where the opposition came to power. The imposition of martial law in December 2024 will be a dark chapter in South Korean Political history. However, it’s inspiring to note that despite being under Martial law for the 17th time, it has been able to protect its democratic setup. This is what happens when the people of the nation are aware & vigilant about the political process of the country. Democracy is not all about fair elections only, but the participation of the people in the political process also matters a lot. Thus, along with the government, people need to be vigilant and keep an eye on the government, which tries to turn the democratic setup into an authoritarian rule. Hence, a democracy is not defeated.

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