Backed into a political corner, with a hostile parliament and approval ratings for anti-tank missiles, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol chose the nuclear option.

In a late-night televised address, the embattled president and former prosecutor announced he would declare martial law.

“In order to protect a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and eliminate subversive elements… I hereby declare a state of emergency martial law,” Mr. Yoon said in his address to the nation.

“Through this martial law, I will rebuild and protect the free Republic of Korea as it plunges into the depths of national ruin.”

It was a shocking decision not made since South Korea was ruled by a military dictatorship.

The move would bring a military-style government and sweeping restrictions on the public, including the press and parliamentarians.

All military units in the south, which is technically still at war with the nuclear-armed north, were also ordered to increase their alert and emergency preparedness, local media reported.

And then, just as surprisingly, a few hours later the president announced a humiliating backtrack after the leader of the country’s main opposition party, Lee Jae-myung of the Liberal Democratic Party, called on his lawmakers to unite in parliament to end martial law to prevent from continuing.

There was a desperate scramble with security forces at the National Assembly in Seoul until 190 politicians voted to scrap the declaration, declaring it invalid.

Load…

Some soldiers and police were seen leaving the site shortly afterwards as the country suffered from the dramatic turn of events.

Many wondered: What the hell was the president thinking and what decisions led to this stunning political moment?

How Yoon rose to power by appealing to men

Mr. Yoon was voted into power in March 2022 with a narrow majority.

It was a divisive victory that set the tone for years to come.

He tapped into cohorts of disenfranchised young men who believed that “gender quality” efforts under the previous administration gave women a free pass.

For example, women were not required to do military service, and companies made efforts to hire more women into their ranks.

President Yoon promised to disband the Gender Equality Minister and declared that there was no structural gender discrimination.

But as the president quickly learned, leading the nation doesn’t necessarily mean getting what you want.

The opposition, the left-leaning Democratic Party, controlled parliament and suppressed his ambitions to abolish the ministry.

So the president faced a challenge.

He had to ensure that his conservative party, the People Power Party, could win back parliament in the crucial midterm elections.

But a series of scandals cost his ambitions dearly.

Dior and Australia scandals embroil the president in controversy

Mr. Yoon’s approval rating has fallen steadily since he took power, with voters citing a lack of communication and economic problems as well as controversy surrounding the first lady.

His wife, Kim Keon Hee, was caught accepting a luxury Christian Dior handbag worth 3 million won ($3,400) from a priest who secretly filmed the exchange.

Some members of Mr Yoon’s conservative People Power Party (PPP) had called on the president and his wife to apologize in the hope of resolving the matter.

But the scandal threatened to split the party.

She has already come under fire for allegedly failing to pay taxes, manipulating stock prices, accepting bribes to host art exhibitions and exaggerating her resume.

Another saga engulfed Australia.

The president chose his embattled Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup as the country’s ambassador to Australia.

The decision came while the minister was under investigation for alleged interference in an investigation into a Korean soldier who drowned during search and rescue operations.

The public accused Mr. Yoon of wanting to protect his ally from justice, and the decision was soon overturned.

In the days before an election in April, Mr. Yoon revealed that he did not know the price of a spring onion, a staple of South Korean cuisine.

It was a sign of how “out of touch” the president was with the people he sought to lead.

The Democratic Party not only won the midterm legislative elections, but also strengthened its position with a landslide victory.

A parliamentary stalemate left Yoon a lame duck

Since then, Mr. Yoon has been at loggerheads with parliament, struggling to push his agenda against the opposition-controlled parliament.

Since taking office, he has vetoed legislation 12 times, including a bill that would investigate allegations against his own wife.

Parliament has also shown an unwillingness to pass the president’s bills and has filed 22 articles of impeachment against government officials since May 2022.

Most recently, Mr. Yoon had to accept a reduced budget.

The opposition has cut around 4.1 trillion won ($4.4 billion) from the government’s proposed 677 trillion won budget plan.

The government’s reserve fund was cut, as were the operating budgets for the Office of the President, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Police and the State Audit Office.

At the same time, the Democratic Party also voted to indict some of the country’s top prosecutors – including the head of the government’s audit agency – for failing to investigate the first lady.

With the president’s agenda stalled, he took to a podium Tuesday night and laid out his martial law plan.

Within hours, helmeted troops and police with weapons were dispatched to the National Assembly building and helicopters were seen landing on the roof.

But Mr Lee of the Liberal Democratic Party called on ordinary South Koreans to show up to parliament in protest.

Load…

Hundreds of demonstrators followed the appeal, gathering outside the parliament building throughout the night and demanding Mr Yoon’s impeachment.

They then returned to parts of the capital the next morning to make the same request.

Will the president be forced to resign?

When declaring martial law, Mr. Yoon cited threats from North Korea but did not elaborate on their content.

He is a hawk and believes the opposition to Pyongyang is too friendly or too soft.

Under his administration, relations between the neighbors have reached a low point.

North Korea routinely fires ballistic missiles, sends garbage-filled balloons across the border, emits loud, disturbing noises toward border villages and has sent troops to help Russia invade Ukraine.

However, it was not clear what specific threat had led to a dramatic escalation of martial law.

The president accused the country’s political opposition of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government through subversive activities.

Political experts believe that meeting the deadline with the opposition was actually an extreme step.

A move that ultimately backfired as the opposition broke military barriers and rejected the declaration.

Mr. Yoon has suffered from low approval ratings for much of his time in office. In the last few months it has fluctuated between 17 and 20 percent.

Why he believed that declaring martial law would give him a much-needed reprieve is unclear.

Political commentator Kim Joonil said martial law was declared just before Parliament was set to indict the chief prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office and the chairman of the Audit and Inspection Committee over their failure to prosecute the president’s wife.

“The president appears to feel isolated and his power is under threat,” he told the ABC.

“He is the type of person who makes decisions spontaneously. He gets angry a lot, so there’s no one around him to give him advice.”

Unable to achieve his goals, the president was a lame duck.

After martial law was declared, the question now arises as to whether he can remain in power.