South Korea’s largest labor union launches an indefinite strike and calls for the president’s resignation
Protestors gathered outside the National Assembly on December 4, 2024, after South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law.
South Korea’s largest labor union launched an indefinite general strike late on Tuesday, calling for the country’s embattled president to resign after he declared martial law.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions issued the call in a Facebook post to its 1.1 million members, saying the strike would start Wednesday at 9 a.m. local time and would last until the president’s “regime” abolished martial law and the president stepped down.
President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday, only to rescind the decree six hours later. It was a stunning move that threw the Asian country into political and economic disarray.
The decree, which suspended civilian government functions and established temporary military control, was South Korea’s first declaration of martial law since the country’s democratization in 1987.
Yoon justified the move in a televised address on Tuesday, saying it was necessary to counter North Korea and “anti-state forces,” while also criticizing the country’s opposition politicians.
In the aftermath, the South Korean won dropped to its lowest level since October 2022, but trimmed losses in Asian hours.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the Korean Confederation of Trade Union described Yoon’s declaration of martial law as “anti-democratic” and one that South Korea’s “people will not forgive.”
Andrew Minjun Park, a 27-year-old graduate student at Seoul National University, who joined protests on Tuesday night, told B-17 that the president had “crossed the line” when he involved the military.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s former foreign minister, Kang Kyung-hwa, told CNN that the president’s move and the way it was handled was “completely unacceptable” and an “aberration.”
According to the Yonhap news agency, 10 senior aides working for Yoon, including his chief of staff, offered to resign on Wednesday.
Calls for the president’s resignation have been growing. All six opposition parties filed a motion to impeach Yoon on Wednesday, with plans to put it to a vote on Friday or Saturday.
To remove him from office, a two-thirds majority in Parliament and at least six justices of the nine-member Constitutional Court would be required, per the Associated Press.
Yoon has been dubbed a “lame-duck president” because he holds the nation’s highest position without a majority in the legislature.
Robert E. Kelly, a professor of political science at Pusan National University, told India’s WION news on Wednesday that Yoon’s “approval rating is under 20%, so he has no strong public backing to help keep him in office to overcome this.”
“If he decides to stay, he’ll almost certainly face impeachment,” Kelly added.
