'It has to be a deepfake': South Korean opposition leader on martial law announcement

South Korea as president may hold on to power after all, despite his widely criticized martial law order. Members of his People Power Party say they are against a motion to impeach Yoon Sook Yeo. But opposition leaders are hoping to change some minds before the weekend vote.

Lawmakers and protesters descended on parliament late Tuesday after Yoon's declaration, only to be met by hundreds of soldiers. The president rescinded his martial law decree a few hours later amid fierce backlash. Kim Jong un, in the unit ministration, attempted to seize control of the National Assembly by deploying approximately 250 elite martial law troops to the parliamentary building.

This is an unforgivable crime, one that cannot, should not and will not be pardoned. Meanwhile, South Korea's defense minister is the latest political casualty from the debacle. President Yoon accepted his resignation early Thursday, and I spoke a short time ago with CNN senior international correspondent Ivan Watson at the National Assembly in Seoul about what comes next.

Rosemary, it's less than 48 hours ago that President Yoon declared martial law on Korea. And it's just been a remarkable series of events since then. I'm coming to you live from inside the National Assembly.

And this is where you had confrontations here between police and soldiers who were sent to try to disrupt a gathering of lawmakers who ultimately succeeded in voting to overrule the president's emergency rule decree. I spoke with the leader of the largest opposition bloc in the National Assembly, the head of the Democratic Party, and I asked him what he thought when he first heard on Tuesday night that the president had declared martial law. Take a listen.

I turn to my wife, suddenly showed me a YouTube video and said, the president is declaring martial law. I replied, that's a deepfake. It has to be a deepfake.

There's no way that's real. But when I watched the video, the president was indeed declaring martial law. Yet I thought to myself, this is fabricated.

It's fake. So then what that, lawmaker succeeded in doing was he rushed to this location. He was actually streaming on YouTube.

His his wife was driving the car, and he was blocked from entering the National Assembly headquarters. And, he was streaming on his YouTube channel how he jumped over a wall and came in here, and he actually told me that he hit mute by accident on his live broadcast. So there's no audio on it as he kind of comes into the building.

The lawmakers had assembled in there, and 190 of them voted unanimously to, overturn martial law there. And now the focus appears to be on what comes next with the main opposition party, the Democratic Party, calling for impeachment. And we've also just learned that they're, issuing, that they're filing charges not only against President Yoon, but also against his defense minister, who has since resigned.

the army chief of staff, the head of the police, as well as several other military commanders and a minister of safety, accusing them of carrying out insurrection to disrupt the constitutional order with what they did there. I'll add another, fact about by the way, the police commissioner has since said that he doesn't believe that what took place that night, amounted to a crime. As he's being accused of that.

This is the entry to the Hall of the National Assembly there. And the opposition lawmakers are refusing to leave that chamber. They're staying there in shifts, even throughout the night, sleeping there because they say that they are worried that President Yoon could try to, declare martial law yet again.

So they are literally performing a vigil in there to protect what they say are their constitutional rights, which is if you get enough lawmakers, a majority in there, they can vote to overturn a martial law decree. Back to you, Rosemary. Also joining me from Seoul, Jon Nelson, right, is a Northeast Asia specialist at Cambridge University and Chatham House.

Appreciate you talking with us. Pleasure. So as South Korea continues to deal with the turmoil created by President Uncivil declaring martial law, lawmakers are moving to impeach him, but his ruling party plans to oppose that move.

How likely is it that the opposition parties will get enough votes to impeach in? I think it's very hard to say at this point. this is quite a tightly run thing.

essentially, they need eight additional votes. They need to peel away eight votes from the conservative governing party. But the statement from Handelman, the leader of the the governing party, has been pretty unambiguous, saying that he will work to ensure unity on the part of his own party members to ensure that that impeachment measure does not go through.

And then we are in a very difficult predicament because this stalemate looks set to continue. and of course, you have to recognize that all of this is happening against the backdrop of acute public anxiety. the fact that ordinary South Koreans came out onto the streets, also, when the martial law announcement was made in protest against the president's actions.

there is a public appetite, I think, to do everything possible, including, street demonstrations. We may well see on Saturday if that critical impeachment vote fails, that there will be large numbers of Koreans, perhaps in the in the tens or hundreds of thousands showing up in the center of Seoul, echoing the so-called candlelight demonstrations that we saw in 2016, which led to the impeachment of then president. but the name, I don't think you can underestimate the extent to which the, martial law declaration reminded ordinary Koreans of the experience of the 1980s and the 1980s were, of course, a critical decade in which essentially the democratic movement got its impetus and led ultimately to the overturning of authoritarian leadership units.

Intensely unpopular, he was intensely unpopular before he made this announcement. this has contributed to his for the what I would describe as a crisis of legitimacy. And therefore, the conservative politicians, if they decide not to sign up behind the impeachment measure, may run the risk of being seen as effectively legitimizing this, martial law declaration.

and therefore, we have a situation that is right to exacerbate partizan differences and to create a very volatile situation. Not to mention all the concerns that you alluded to, that president, you in my mind, to, introduce another martial law order. There are questions about, what the opposition can do in the face of saying if that impeachment measure does not go through, and I think that's why foreign governments, not least the United States, are looking at the situation with a great deal of concern and continuing anxiety.

So what damage do you think has already been done to the country, even though martial law that was declared by you and lasted only six hours? I think a huge amount of potential damage, not least because President Yoon has shown that he has no real understanding of the process of political negotiation and political compromise. One reason this situation has intensified is because he has effectively de-legitimize the leader of the opposition party, and even himself is a polarizing political figure disliked by conservative opinion, who see him as if you like, a progressive populist, anti elitist, knocks if you like, one of them.

And therefore there are great concerns about what might happen if President Yoon were impeached. this would then lead to ultimately a new presidential election. there are serious questions about who might win a future presidential contest.

What would that mean for the direction of South Korea's foreign policy? EJB, if he were a candidate, could potentially take the country in a very different direction. perhaps in ways that threaten the US RFK alliance.

So for for more sober minded Koreans looking at the situation, they worry about the implications of yet another impeachment crisis. raising concerns about the stability of the political system altogether and what it might lead to in terms of future leadership of the country. John Nelson, right, in Seoul.

Many thanks for talking with us. Appreciate it.