On the night of December 3, 2024, South Korea's president, Yoon Seok-yeol, declared martial law. But he made a serious error of judgement. Within hours of his attempted "coup", parliament had revoked his order. There followed a vote for his impeachment. Finally, on 4 April 2025, after much hesitation and delay, the Constitutional Court formally removed Yoon from office. The election for a new president was held on 3 June.
In this article we witi look at the political context of Yoon's attempt to re-establish martial law, 44 years after the martial law declared by the military dictator General Chun Doo-hwan - the butcher of Kwangju - who in 1987 was forced by a general working class and popular uprising to call elections. Obviously Yoon's actions raise serious questions for the working class. And all the more so, because in the meantime, President Trump has instigated tariffs against South Korean exports - which if they are eventually imposed may curtail the profits of South Korea's capitalists - who are already turning the screw on workers and forcing them to give up their hard-won gains.
From martial law to impeachment
The martial law declaration took everyone by surprise. It seems not even his US "masters" had been forewarned.
President Yoon Seok-yeol made his move at 10pm on December 3rd. He called on 1,500 armed soldiers and 4,000 police officers to take over the National Assembly building.
His proclamation "prohibited all political activities including the National Assembly, party activities, associations, rallies, and demonstrations ... and strikes..."
According to the notebook of former Intelligence Commander Noh Sang-won, who was subsequently arrested on charges of sedition, the "coup group" around Yoon discussed arresting opposition party leaders ard the chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) with the intention of executing them! Up to 10,000 political and labour activists would be eliminated "if necessary".
However none of this was to be: as soon as the martial law declaration was made public, thousands of workers and members of the public rushed to the National Assembly. Inside, members of parliament and their supporters built barricades against the soldiers and armed police. In the street outside, the protesters succeeded in physically blocking the advance of the tanks and forcing some of the young, rather hesitant, soldiers into retreat.
In this atmosphere, opposition MPs - in the majority, anyway - were able to pass a bill demanding the lifting of martial law just a few hours later, at 1am. Of the 190 National Assembly members present (out of 300) - all voted in favour; including members of Yoon Seok-yeol's People's Power Party (PPP). Nevertheless Yoon still saw fit to reprimand the Minister of National Defence, saying, "Sending 500 troops to the National Assembly was not enough; you should have sent 1,000" and threatened that he could declare martial law again, "two or three times".
At 4,30am, the PPP Cabinet accepted that martial law was over. In fact it had only "held" for just over 6 hours.
The Democratic Party now led the National Assembly's call for Yoon's impeachment to prevent him from declaring a second martial law, as he had threatened. However, the National Assembly's impeachment vote was delayed because there were not enough votes to secure a quorum: by now the PPP members had pulled themselves together and were refusing to participate in the vote.
Public anger grew, with farge protests in the streets and squares. On Saturday, 14 December, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Yeouido, Seoul's city banking district. The National Assembly finally passed the impeachment motion, with 204 votes in favour, 85 votes against.
Was this a "mis-step": fighting the Korean war over again?
Why did Yoon try to instigate martial law? There was no real threat posed by the work'ng class and only a few sectional disputes were currently taking place in the metro and railways. Yoon, however claimed his aim was: "To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea's communist forces and to eliminate anti-state efements...".
In fact in the months leading up to the declaration, a leading KCTU official had been jailed and several had been accused of sympathy with the regime in North Korea - without any grounds. But it should be kept in mind that, bar the PPP and its right-wing and far-right allies, most political parties and organisations still have a policy in favour of reunification of the two Korea's (first initiated as the "Sunshine" policy by Kim Dae Jung in 1998), even if this has, as time passes, become more and more token. This includes the main opposition Democratic Party, the small Progressive Party, and even smaller parties like the Democratic Labour Party (formerly the Justice Party) linked to the KCTU. However, the Progressive Party asserts its pro-reunification policies more openly, in the tradition of teftist-anti-imperialism, an orientation which goes back to the struggles of 1987 - and thus opposition to the continued US military presence in South Korea.
This obviously puts most of these parties at odds with the PPP, which is implacably hostile to the North and pro-American.
To date, the US maintains some 28,500 military personnel in South Korea, as part of its "security cordon" against North Korea and behind it, China. Although today, Donald Trump is threatening to withdraw US soldiers, while at the same time asking the South Korean Government to pay for their maintenance... One can make of that, what one will!
Camp Humphreys, built at the cost of $11bn in 2004 (the largest US base in Asia), occupies 3,454 acres (~5 square miles) and houses a whole infantry and air division in over 500 buildings. This huge base was meant to consolidate the US presence and replace the historic 77 acre-Yongsan US base in Seoul (some of whose buildings date back to the 35-year-long Japanese occupation, pre-1945).
By now, the veterans of the Korean war (25 Jun 1950 - 27 Jul 1953) who fought against the "Communist" forces in the North, supported by the Soviet Union and China at the time, are dead or dying. But the Cold War atmosphere and imposition of anti-Communist hatred amongst the South Koreans who were expected to join US and "allied", (mainly) British, forces in this savage war over seventy years ago against their fellow Koreans (3 million, mainly civilians were killed) has been kept alive by the right and far-right political organisations, including, if not mainly, by Yoon's PPP.
This is certainly encouraged by western imperialism viz., the USA - which continues for its own purposes to maintain the isolation and pariah status of poverty-stricken North Korea. All the more so, because North Korea has built its own nuclear deterrent, being constantly afraid of attack by a potentially belligerent West whose unremitting Cold War rhetoric undoubtedly fuels its fears.
A former British ambassador te South Korea, Warwick Morris, quoted in the Times, expressed his own doubts over Yoon's motives in declaring martial law. "I'm very surprised that the president has decided that calling for martial law is the way ahead", he said. "He's been under pressure. His budget bill is under pressure. He's a hardliner towards North Korea, and this is a factor and of course, we've seen in recent weeks and months North Korea and Russia getting closer. North Korean troops in Ukraine, enhanced threats by North Korea against South Korea. And there's always in South Korea this kind of under-the-surface feeling - are there communists within? Are there people within who might be working to overthrow the South Korean regime?" ... "The president seems to have perhaps felt that there are people, too many people, who are maybe sympathetic to North Korea, and this is why he's taking this action. But it seems to me over the top. And what will the army do? We don't know. What will the armed forces do? They are really caught".
It's true that Yoon played on the paranoia felt towards North Korea among sections of the population, and of course in his own party. But if anything, with North Korean soldiers being sent to Ukraine, there was reason to believe that Kim Yong Un was least likely, at this moment in time, to pose any real threat, due to his preoccupation with Putin's needs. As for claims of "reds under the bed" it's been an ever-present, apparently useful, feature of PPP propaganda which appeals to surviving veterans and its reactionary (mostly very elderly) milieu.
A lame duck, just trying to quack for the bosses
The truth of the matter is that Yoon Seok-yeol had very mundane reasons to try to stage a coup d'2tat. He has been a "lame duck" president ever since his conservatives lost their majority in the 2024 general election. Obviously, this loss meant he was unable to get legislation through parliament, unless he could get the support of the Democratic Party. On top of this, he and his wife have been plagued by corruption scandals.
Unsurprisingly, some PPP party activists took up the Trump slogan "stop the steal", claiming the 2024 general election had been rigged. A propaganda film which promotes this Trump-esque conspiracy theory has also been made for the PPP presidential campaign - claiming that it is all pre-rigged, answering in advance for the victory of the Demacratic Party candidate, Lee Jae-myung.
However, Yoon's coup attempt cannot be viewed simply as a fit of nostalgic madness from a right-wing conspiracy theorist who was too fond of a drink. For the Korean working class, it is a reminder of a highly brutal and repressive past - and a warning for the future.
"Bourgeois democracy" in South Korea dates only from the 1990s - ushered in, in 1987, by the near- insurrectionary movement of the working class and "June democracy movement". It is "thin".
In this militarised society, supposedly ever-ready for a threat from the North - and in the context of worsening economic crisis - there is always the possibility of a reversion to the authoritarian dictatorsh prevailed before 1987. Besides, behind Yoon and his clique, there are many among the right-wing par: hark back nostalgically to this brutal dictatorial past, where order was enforced day to day by the police and army and political dissenters were put in jail.
Anyway, this is not the first time that the working class has had a taste of the undisguised anti-working class policies of the PPP. Ever since the Yoon Seok-yeol government first came to power in 2022 it has shown its willingness to use force against workers. In June-July 2022 it attempted to deploy special police to break the strike of Daewoo Shipbuilding subcontractors. Then, in November-December 2022, it broke up the Cargo Solidarity strike by means of a "work commencement order". And then in 2023, it suppressed construction union strikes and systematically went after union organisers, arresting them on trumped up charges and even putting them in jail.
Before Yoon's attempted "coup", the Korean economy was going through a period of contraction; the effects of the global economic recession, which was interrupted by the Covid pandemic and subsequently resumed. As a result, the Yoon Seck-yeol government's approval ratings were dropping. Capitalist organisations, including the Federation of Korean Industries, were clamouring for more deregulation and further "labour market fexibility" (meaning the possibility to lay off workers without any cost). Further legislation against the rights of the working class - so hard-won in the late 1980s and early 1990s - is what they wanted - and all the better if strikes were outlawed completely, as Yoon's martial law proclaimed.
The working class watches and waits
But what was the attitude of the unions and KCTU to the emergency? Actually, on the morning of December 4, the leadership of the KCTU had declared an "indefinite general strike untif Yoon Seok-yeol steps down", But a general strike never took place; the KCTU had no means to implement this. In the end, a few sections of the Metal Workers' Union did take action: at Hyundai Motors and GM Korea, for instance, a 4-hour strike was announced, but because it took place during training time, it had little impact on production. After a second general strike call, the Metal Workers' Union decided to conduct another two-hour strike, but in most workplaces, again, a real strike did not actually take place; general meeting time or annual leave time was taken, and usually it was only union leaders who participated in the rallies.
Among the large factories, GM Korea's union was almost the only one to call a two-hours (only!) production stoppage, which the workers felt was nevertheless pretty much useless. The only union that consistently participated in the rallies was that of the school cafeteria cooks. But they had already been struggling over their working conditions and low wages - and because they have strong ties to the Progressive Party, which is the current name of the old political "wing" of the unions, they remained under the sectional guidance of the KCTU leadership.
Moreover, while ordinary workers did not feel the need to actively participate in the weekly rallies, the leadership of the unions/the KCTU refrained from even attempting to mobilise them to do so... These leaders (the executives of the unions) of course, ensured that their own faces were seen on the platform - but that is all.
Before Yoon's declaration, the tube workers' union had planned a strike in the Seoul Metro, for 6 December. This was cancelled. However the overground railway union leaders went ahead with a strike they had called for 5 December, after the news that martial law - which would have made their strike illegal ~ was lifted.
Although some of the strikers participated in a rally demanding Yoon Seok-yeol's resignation in front of the National Assembly on Saturday 7 December, union leaders made no political declaration of their own. Nor did they call on other workers to join them. The strike was kept within its original narrow boundaries of a few railway worker sections and in fact called off on December 11, after Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung had met with the union leaders. It's likely that he promised that the demands of the strikers would be met under a DP government, thinking that by doing so, he was preventing any possible extension of this strike to other rail workers, or the wider working class - if indeed that threat existed. He certainly aimed to keep any movement against the Yoon government under his party's full control.
All of that said, there is no doubt at all that the majority of workers clearly understood the mortal danger that martial law posed to themselves and their organisations - had it been imposed. They followed the news every day. This lack of an active response may seem surprising given the past history of Korean workers militancy. However, workers knew their lives would not improve dramatically, even if the president was dismissed. We will return to this point later.
The far-right rallies to "make Korea great again"!
So what was the attitude of the general public - who had rallied in order to support the democratic institutions (as they saw It) - as everyone waited on the Constitutional Court to make its ruling or Yoon?
During this period, the initial mass movement against Yoon Seok-yeol subsided considerably. The Democratic Party and pro-Democratic Party civic groups that led the movement to impeach Yoon ensured that the protests and rallies remained within strict bounds and under their control.
But while there was a decline in attendance at rallies by the "democratic left" (in fact the liberal centre of Korean politics), that was not the case for the PPP, the far right and the supporters of Yoon Seok-yul who were calling for his reinstatement.
After trying and succeeding for several weeks to prevent Yoon from being arrested by blockading his residence and staging numerous violent raids against Korean institutions, the far-right organised large-scale rallies around the region, and from mid-February, they "organised" disruption at universities in order to try to appeal to a younger audience.
Their weekly rallies - "illuminated" by large video screens, featuring fanatical Christian pastors promoting the reactionary misogyny of Trump - grew week by week, to the point where they far outnumbered the rallies held by the democrats and their supporters, taking place just a few streets away.
It's possible that it was this growing mobilisation which prompted the Constitutional Court to release Yoon Seok-yeol from prison, on 8 March, ignoring a 70-year legal precedent. And this in turn fuelled anxiety that it might also dismiss the impeachment - an anxiety made worse by the unusual delay in the verdict.
The PPP and its right-wing supporters could obviously spend a lot of money on their "reinstate Yoon" campaign, their attempt to resurrect the anti-communism of the Korean war, their Donald Trump slogans and their ubiquitous American flags. And this may have been a turn-on for the elderly and maybe some sections of brain-washed youth, fresh out of their 18-21-month military service, but this was more likely a turn-off for the majority of the population, especially the youth and working class.
The fact that polls often show the PPP "neck and neck" with the opposition is not an indication of majority public support for the PPP, but thanks to a "democratic" system which does not (and cannot) include true representation for the working class and poor. Anyway, in the absence of any hope of change, many just do not vote.
In the end, on 4 April and much to most people's relief, Yoon Seok-yeol was "sacked" as president by a unanimous 8-0 vote by the judges of the Constitutional Court. This opened the way for the presidential election campaigns of ali the main parties.
A Democratic Party president? No friend of the working class!
Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung is the main opposition candidate and will most likely win the race on 3 June. Obviously it will mean a new cabinet - a new government - chosen by Lee and the Democratic Party. Theoretically, with a majority in the assembly, Lee's feet should not be "lame". However as Is evidenced below, he has already given a foretaste of what is in store for workers.
Indeed, what has been happening inside the National Assembly chamber since Yoon's suspension says it all about a forthcoming Lee Jae-myung presidency.
In fact, the re-assembled National Assembly was back at work passing anti-working class and pro-boss legislation just a week after the failed coup attempt! On 10 December they voted a tax cut for the wealthy. Immediately after the impeachment resolution on December 14, they proposed creating a joint governance consultative body between the Democratic Party, the People's Power Party and Yoon's ministers. In other words the DP tried to cooperate with the PPP and Yoon Seok Yeol's government even though Yoon was impeached by the National Assembly and suspended from his duties!
On January 23, Lee Jae-myung agreed to eliminate 52-hour(!) working week regulation in the semiconductor industry, accepting demands from companies like Samsung Electronics, flagrantly increasing the health and safety risks for workers. However, he was forced to back down later after protests from the unions.
Then together with the PPP, on March 20, Lee agreed on a regressive National Pension reform bill, which drastically increased contributions from 9% to 13% (a 44% increase) while increasing benefits by only 7.5%.
In short, this Democratic Party, has been carrying on an "economic coup" against working people in the past months! And while this was happening, pro-Democratic Party civic groups and the KCTU leadership got together under an Emergency Action (Immediate Resignation of Yoon Suk-yeol and Major Social Reform), in order to formulate various social demands - which are very likely to come to nothing.
As for the KCTU leadership, which had declared that it would call strikes every Thursday from March 27 if the Constitutional Court did not announce a date for its ruling on the impeachment by March 26, this was little more than an attempt to save face: there was no real strike on March 27, all they did was hold a rally. In their April 4 statement, the KCTU leadership called for "unity" and what this has amounted to, was joining hands with the Democratic Party against the People's Power Party. Indeed, in the end, the Progressive Party and part of the KCTU leadership decided (unofficially) to support Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung, rather than put up their own presidential candidate.
But whether workers have illusions in Lee or not - or merely want to keep the PPP and far right out of the presidency, a significant number are likely to vote for him given the recommendations of "left" parties which they support. However, since the turnout for these elections is usually not very high - around 60% - it is hard to predict exactly what will happen, even with today's multiple opinion polls.
Anyway, Lee Jae-myung, who has very deliberately canvassed the support of the working people, has also made no secret of his pro-business stance. And what if the Korean bosses and their US superiors feel that the working class posed a threat in the future? Lee Jae-myung would certainly not hesitate to act against workers, even by declaring martial law himself. Of this, one can be in no doubt.
The need for a revolutionary party
Although the Korean working class did not appear on the political stage this winter in its own name and with its own independent demands, this is not because it is no longer a force to be reckoned with, nor because it was asleep! Quite the contrary. The declaration of martial law was an immediate shock to workers, who in their midst have many fellows who have been jailed and/or persecuted for participating in strikes or leading them. They know what this means. But when the decree was quickly revoked - and seemingly without much difficulty or resistance, there was no impetus for workers to mount any collective fight.
What's more, since the establishment of their independent trade unions and the federation - the KCTU - in the early 1990s, there has been a gradual - but sure - pressure against any and all "open" militancy, as union leaderships have taken the path of least resistance and of collaboration with the capitalist class and government.
In fact it is nearly 40 years since the "Great Struggle of 1987" when, over a period of just three months, there were 3,300 strikes and near-strikes and 1,100 new unions established. It is 30 years since the general strikes of 1996-97 when workers across all industries rose up against the attempt to pass anti-labour laws, bringing the whole Korean capitalist world to a halt.
Today some of the activists involved in those fights - and those they have subsequently influenced amongst a younger generation - are still present in workplaces. However the progressive and collective force of union organisation which was won 3 or 4 decades ago, is by now a force which instead, acts to contain them. That is the nature of the bureaucratic unions in most countries today and South Korea is no exception. But it would not take much for this dormant force to overcome the reformist leaders who in reality know nothing about organising a real fight.
What would be possible if there were a revolutionary workers' party deeply rooted in all workplaces, trusted by the working class, and with the majority of the most conscious and dedicated worker-fighters participating as Its main actors? This is the missing link for lasting change and one which needs to be forged and built - everywhere - as an urgent task... It goes without saying that today, for instance, there were no candidates standing in the presidential election representing any such party, nor any who would deserve workers' support.
Big trouble - or sunrise - on the horizon
The Korean economic situation is rapidly deteriorating. The Korea Institute of Finance lowered its economic growth forecast for this year from 2.0% to 0.8%. That is a big drop. In the first quarter of this year, the Korean economy already shrank by 0.2%.
Korea's is an "export-driven" economy. It has a special relationship with the USA, of course, which accounts for about 20% its exports. (China is also a major destination - taking another 20% and Europe 10%). Out of the total volume of exports, semiconductors make up 25%, vehicles 13% (or 15% including parts), and machinery and computers 10%. All of these could be affected by Trump's trade war.
Shortly after "Liberation Day" Trump's administration suspended some of the 25% tariffs until July, but has retained them on Korean vehicles, steel, and aluminium, while imposing a basic 10% tariff on other products. As a result, the economy has begun to take a significant hit. And Korean capitalists will be attacking the working class further, in order to compensate for these losses.
Already finance and telecoms companies have been offering "voluntary" retirement programs. But these are de facto compuisory redundancies: they are accompanied by threats that those who don't accept will be forced out empty-handed.
Price increases are another way the capitalists are making workers pay. Various companies raised prices, taking advantage of the government's relaxed monitoring during the recent political turmoil. Apartment management fees, including heating, electricity, and water bills, have jumped 40% over the past decade: the government has also been actively raiding workers' pockets.
However, while consumer prices rose by 2.3% in 2024, the minimum wage increased by only 1.7%, meaning that pay was effectively cut, in real terms.
It is clear that, regardless of which party's candidate wins in the presidential election, the economic war targeting workers will not stop, not even for a moment. And it is likely to become more merciless as the crisis deepens. And all the more so, if tensions between major powers intensify, including over the Taiwan Strait and dominance of the South China Sea.
Furthermore, there is a danger - which Trump's reactionary presidency in the US encourages - that this could lead to increasing far-right agitation and increasing support for their agenda, which includes reigniting aggression towards the North and a sustained "martial law" against the working class.
This means that the time for "waiting and watching" on the part of the working class is rapidly coming to a close. And that it needs to prepare for the future "final conflict" with the capitalists, by recognising its true friends across borders and building its own independent workers' revolutionary party, first, to defend its interests, and thereafter, to fight for a socialist world.
20 May 2025