Tragic Martial Law and Comedic Martial Law

From Tragedy to Comedy Under Martial Law
A Common-Sense President Needed, Not a Legal Expert

They came into the house without taking off their shoes at the entrance and went up to the wooden floor. Then they asked about the whereabouts of my father, who was a dismissed journalist. When we said we didn’t know, they searched the house and took my father’s writings and the books he was reading. At that time, my father was hiding somewhere. There had been no contact for several months. As an elementary school student, I couldn’t fully understand what was happening. Strangers came into the house with their boots, threatened us, and took things away. Logically, they were the ones at fault, but we couldn’t report or protest.

From what the adults said, they were agents of the Central Intelligence Agency (now the National Intelligence Service). It also turned out that the neighbors we thought were friendly were actually informants for the intelligence agency. They had moved in and settled nearby to secretly monitor our house. I couldn’t tell my school teachers or friends about this. The atmosphere in the world was too heavy to speak comfortably. This all happened under the emergency martial law that lasted a staggering 456 days from October 27, 1979, to January 24, 1981.

The incident at our house was nothing compared to others. At the same time, many people were sacrificed in Gwangju while demanding democratization. On May 17, 1980, the new military regime expanded the martial law, which had been applied nationwide except for Jeju, to the entire country. The next day, a tragedy occurred in Gwangju. The military pointed guns and swords at citizens who were calling for democratization and the lifting of martial law.

Since the Korean War in 1950-53, the government has declared martial law eight times in total: the April Revolution in 1960, the May 16 military coup in 1961, the June 3 uprising in 1964, the October Yushin regime in 1972, the Bu-Ma democratic protests and the October 26 incident in 1979, the May 17 military coup in 1980, and most recently, the current administration declared martial law on the 3rd of this month. In the past, martial law was a tragedy. The air smelled of gunpowder and blood. Lives faded away in pain. Fear ruled the world.

However, this administration’s martial law is a comedy. It is even turning into a festival. At the anti-martial law and impeachment protest sites, idol songs were playing. Young people took to the streets holding light sticks instead of Molotov cocktails, which were once symbols of resistance. The once fearsome martial law troops bowed their heads in apology to the citizens. The volatile capital market found its footing again in just a few days.

What is different from the past? Our country is no longer a developing or dictatorial state. It is almost impossible for the government to push through unreasonable actions. So why did this happen? It seems that the fact that those who hold or seek power are legal experts had a significant influence. They prioritized legal logic over common sense. President Yoon Suk-yeol said that legally, martial law is both the right and duty of the president, and furthermore, the declaration of martial law is an act of governance not subject to judicial review.

There is a famous saying among legal scholars: “Lex vigilantibus, non dormientibus, subvenit.” It means that the law helps those who are vigilant, not those who sleep on their rights. The president, a legal expert, actively exercised that right. Law has probably always been on his side. He will likely believe that the law will help him again this time. But what we need in a leader is not someone who knows and uses the law well, but someone who can act according to their beliefs without causing legal problems. If you think and act with common sense, you rarely need to use or rely on the law.