President Yoon said, "Accepting the National Assembly's demands...To lift martial law"

[Anchor]
Yoon Suk Yeol's president has declared an emergency martial law and said he will lift it at the request of the National Assembly in about six hours. This news will lead to a phone call with Jang Young-soo, a professor of law at Korea University. Professor, you're out, right?

[Jang Young-soo]
Hello.

[Anchor]
How are you? It was at 10:20 p.m. last night when President Yoon declared an emergency martial law. It was about 4 a.m. after that. We announced the lifting in six hours, but we finally accepted the National Assembly's request, right?

[Jang Young-soo]
That's what I should say. And in the Constitution and the Martial Law, a majority of the members of the National Assembly are required to lift martial law. In the end, it should be seen as a situation in which it has taken legal effect.

[Anchor]
The National Assembly has been really busy to demand the lifting of martial law, so please summarize what legal procedures have been carried out in the National Assembly until the request for lifting is made.

[Jang Young-soo]
The first problem now was that access to the National Assembly was restricted. But in that regard, it's actually important that the lawmakers gather, but the place called the National Assembly is not important. In the end, if a majority of lawmakers gather in the National Assembly or elsewhere, they can demand the lifting of martial law. At the time, however, there were talks about blocking the demand for the lifting of martial law by banning access to the National Assembly, but I heard later that lawmakers and aides were allowed to enter, and I understand that 190 lawmakers gathered and unanimously passed the demand for the lifting of martial law. In this case, in accordance with Article 77 of the Constitution, the President will eventually be obliged to lift martial law without delay by accepting the demand for the lifting of martial law.

[Anchor]
It is stated that martial law should be lifted without delay, but President Yoon first made a statement and said he would lift the emergency martial law, and said he would take steps as soon as the quorum of the Cabinet was insufficient at the time, so the resolution of the Cabinet was made at around 4:30 a.m. Can you explain in detail what procedures took place in this process?

[Jang Young-soo]
Since martial law is an important issue in the country, the constitution stipulates that martial law be declared through a Cabinet meeting. So yesterday, when martial law was declared, there was a lot of controversy over whether or not martial law was declared after a cabinet meeting because it was not well known to the outside world. But later, I heard it through media reports.Ma was declared martial law through a Cabinet meeting, and martial law was lifted in the same way. You can look at it like this.

[Anchor]
You pointed out the process of lifting the emergency martial law in detail. Let's look at the process of turning the clock forward and declaring an emergency decree. President Yoon has heard the opposition party's continued motion for impeachment and the implementation of the reduction budget since the declaration of the emergency martial law. This is important whether this can be interpreted as a national emergency. How is it constitutionally?

[Jang Young-soo]
Under the current constitution, it is a serious situation that requires the military to solve the problem by mobilizing troops as a wartime incident or a national emergency equivalent thereto. This is a requirement. And if you look at these constitutional provisions, isn't it difficult to see this as a wartime incident or a situation equivalent to it now? This is the general view of constitutional and legal circles. Another thing is that under martial law, if social chaos is severe and administrative and judicial law is paralyzed, it is said that this is the case, but it is currently difficult to say that it has sufficient requirements, so isn't it unconstitutional because there was an exercise of authority without these requirements? There are a lot of these stories coming out.

[Anchor]
You mentioned the claim that you did not meet the requirements, but first of all, I mentioned the paralysis of the national function, and one of the key reasons is to eradicate pro-North Korean forces and protect the constitutional order. How about this part?

[Jang Young-soo]
I think we need to check more specific circumstances about that now. In fact, when I first heard about the declaration of emergency martial law, this would not be possible only with the contents of the president's statement. It's a bit strange for most legal experts, not just me, to declare emergency martial law in this situation. Furthermore, if that's all, isn't it hard to understand in common sense that the Democratic Party of Korea has a majority of seats now, and the right to demand the lifting of martial law is stipulated by a majority of the registered members according to the Constitution and martial law. That's why there was a special situation that was difficult to reveal to the public. That's what I thought. For example, under President Bill Clinton, under President Kim Dae Jung in our country. At that time, there were talks about attacking North Korea in the United States because of North Korea's nuclear development. And then, if President Kim Dae Jung does that, a war will break out on the Korean Peninsula. Stop nuclear development because we will provide light water to North Korea along with diplomatic efforts, saying this should be prevented. I made this kind of effort. But at that time, I didn't tell the general public that the United States had plans to attack North Korea. If it's a similar situation, this can be explained, but if it's not, it's hard to understand that emergency martial law is done in this situation. In the end, President Kim Dae Jung sought cooperation from the opposition party in such a situation. At that time, there were more opposition parties and it was a women's and women's college, and if the opposition demands it, martial law was lifted. It wasn't martial law back then.Ma was in a similar situation, but he chose to go in that direction with the cooperation of the opposition rather than emergency martial law, and now he chose emergency martial law, so it is difficult to explain emergency martial law unless it is such a serious situation, a sudden change in North Korea, Kim Jong-un's death, or signs of attack on South Korea.

[Anchor]
Currently, the opposition party is guilty of rebellion by mobilizing the military in connection with the declaration of emergency martial law. I will propose an impeachment motion against President Yoon by the end of the day. This is the position. How should I look at the scope of the rebellion?

[Jang Young-soo]
Insurrection is a national rebellion under the criminal law, and in the end, the most representative is a coup under former President Park Chung-hee or former President Chun Doo-hwan. It's a civil war, it's hard to say. Therefore, this is a part that can be judged only when other specific circumstances are revealed, but it is an abuse of authority. The right to emergency martial law is a very important authority, and if it is invoked without the special circumstances I mentioned earlier, it can be argued that it is an abuse of authority and itself becomes a reason for impeachment.

[Anchor]
If the crime of rebellion became an accomplice, wouldn't the military and police have moved according to the emergency martial law? If so, how do you view the criticism that this part can also become an accomplice or illegal?

[Jang Young-soo]
I think that's difficult. If the president orders from above accordingly, he has no choice but to move under the Constitution and in practice. If you don't move, you'll be disobeying orders. When we talked about the liquidation of the 5th ball, for example, we talked about the leadership, including the two former presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, but you didn't do it like this about the military forces who moved according to the instructions. Even now, it is not legally reasonable to consider a military force that has moved according to instructions as an accomplice.

[Anchor]
Now, the opposition party and representative Han Dong-hoon of the People's Power are emphasizing that declaring martial law is unconstitutional and illegal. What do you think is unconstitutional in the process of declaring martial law?

[Jang Young-soo]
First of all, the most important thing is that it did not meet the requirements for the declaration of emergency martial law as mentioned earlier. And what I don't really understand about this is that it is a national emergency equivalent to a wartime incident, and everyone knows that the current constitution has made the requirements strict to change cases that have been abused in the past, but why did the president make such a judgment when he knows that there are quite a few former legal professionals? There is definitely a political problem right now. And I personally think that budget issues and the misuse of impeachment are problematic. But it's another problem to see it as a reason to declare emergency martial law. It seems that the core of the problem lies here.

[Anchor]
He pointed out the unconstitutional elements of the declaration and even pointed out that the requirements may be insufficient. Then, there were claims that there were several unconstitutional elements before the procedural legality of the declaration, and that there was a problem with the procedure, so what do you think about this?

[Jang Young-soo]
Regarding that part, in the beginning, it has to be deliberated by the State Council due to procedures, but it seems that such procedural problems arose further as this part was not confirmed. However, as long as it has been confirmed that it has been deliberated by the State Council, it will be difficult to take issue with the procedure.

[Anchor]
First of all, there were no procedural problems. That's what he said. As controversial as it was, as I said earlier, calls for impeachment are already coming from inside and outside the politics. Could this be a reason for impeachment? Please point out the scope.

[Jang Young-soo]
When the requirements for impeachment under Article 65 (1) of the Constitution violate the Constitution or the Act with respect to the execution of duties. This is a constitutional requirement. And the Constitutional Court says through the existing impeachment trial that the degree of unconstitutionality, illegality, or illegality is so severe that the person subject to prosecution is dismissed, and that impeachment can be admitted when it is such a serious illegality. Then, we need to examine one by one whether we meet all three requirements, but first of all, it is clear that the execution of duties is the declaration of emergency martial law, in which the president exercises his authority as president. And as I said earlier, there is unconstitutionality and illegality in that it was done without meeting the requirements. And lastly, is this a serious issue enough to dismiss the president? There's one thing left, and we'll have to wait for the Constitutional Court's judgment on this part.

[Anchor]
And the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions is now signaling a general strike, and civil society continues to condemn the martial law incident. The Bar Association also responded that it would thoroughly investigate the reasons for the constitutional violation. There will be a lot of social repercussions, right?

[Jang Young-soo]
This happened so lightly and carelessly in a situation where it was hard to understand that emergency martial law was a legacy of the old generation before democratization, and we have no choice but to worry that such emergency martial law is suddenly trying to go back to the old days like a historical reaction. I think so.

[Anchor]
Earlier, the opposition party said it would propose an impeachment motion within today, but Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of the Democratic Party, mentioned his resignation. So, do you think this demand to resign on its own will grow even stronger in the future?

[Jang Young-soo]
That can happen. In particular, for the Democratic Party of Korea, the impeachment is prosecuted, when the impeachment decision will be made, and various issues in the process, but on the other hand, the judicial risk of representative Lee Jae-myung has been partially reduced, but is it still in existence? In this way, I think it is most desirable to solve the problem before the representative Lee Jae-myung judicial risk becomes a reality, so such demands are likely to intensify.

[Anchor]
I see. So far, we've heard the legal and other aspects of martial law declaration with Jang Young-soo, a professor at Korea University's law school. Thank you for talking today.