Watch live as potesters storm South Korea’s National Assembly on Tuesday (3 December) after the county’s president declared an emergency martial law.
South Korean police are clashing with protestors while blocking entry to the country’s parliament after president Yoon Suk Yeol made the declaration in a surprise late-night TV address, claiming he would eradicate “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces”.
He did not cite any specific threat from the nuclear-armed North, led by Kim Jong Un, instead focusing on his domestic political opponents, who he accused of throwing the country into a crisis.
“I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order,” he said.
Mr Yoon’s poll ratings have fallen in recent months as he dismisses calls for independent probes into scandals involving his wife and top officials, while his conservative People Power Party has been locked in an impasse with the liberal opposition Democratic Party over next year’s budget bill.
It remained unclear what specific measures would be taken under the new powers. Democratic Party leader Lee Jae Myung said his party would try to nullify the move but expressed fears that parliamentarians could be arrested.