North Korean state media outlets published multiple articles on Wednesday amplifying calls for South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to resign – but notably omitting the fact most calls for his ouster are in response to his failed attempt to impose martial law on the country.
Yoon, a conservative, appeared on national television on Tuesday night and announced that he would declare martial law, claiming it was necessary to “protect the Republic of Korea from the threats of North Korean communist forces, to immediately eradicate the unscrupulous pro-Pyongyang anti-state forces that pillage the freedom and happiness of our people and to protect free constitutional order.”
He did not identify any specific North Korean threat, however, mostly relating the martial law declaration to his frustration that the opposition leftist party currently controls the National Assembly and has blocked several major conservative policy proposals.
The martial law declaration was met with almost near-universal condemnation, including by Yoon’s own People Power Party. Lawmakers stormed the National Assembly to rapidly vote against martial law in the early morning hours of Wednesday, elbowing through masses of heavily armed soldiers as political activity under martial law was banned.
Yoon rescinded the martial law order shortly after lawmakers voted it down and has not addressed the public since. The National Assembly began an impeachment motion against him on Wednesday and police have opened a criminal investigation into Yoon on treason charges.
North Korea’s state news agencies, the only legal sources of news available in the country, have not reported on the martial law crisis at press time. On Tuesday, however, the state newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported that “massive protests” were rocking the South as part of a larger campaign to impeach Yoon. The newspaper offered only vague reasons for the uproar.
“Massive protests are going on in the puppet ROK [Republic of Korea] to impeach puppet Yoon Suk Yeol who is engrossed in all sorts of dictatorship and arbitrary practices while creating the war and security crisis with the backing of the U.S,” Rodong Sinmun claimed.
North Korea is a totalitarian communist dictatorship in which citizens are forced to worship their dictator, Kim Jong-un, and his entire family as gods. Those who dare subscribe to any other religion or reject the Kim cult are forced into labor camps for generations.
The report highlighted a protest calling for Yoon’s impeachment on Saturday, shortly before the martial law order.
“The participants in the rally and demonstration burst out their surging anger at such crimes of puppet Yoon as creating war crisis,” the state propaganda outlet continued, “seeking sycophantic and humiliating diplomacy and abusing the veto power, chanting a slogan ‘Let us overthrow traitor Yoon Suk Yeol!'”
Rodong Sinmun went on to claim, falsely, that Yoon stole the 2022 presidential election from his rival, Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, and to assert that the protesters would “surely oust Yoon by the efforts of the people.”
“Voice of Korea,” another North Korean communist propaganda outlet, also reported on calls for Yoon to resign on Wednesday – again omitting the context of the martial law decree.
“The Candlelight Action, the People’s Solidarity for Sovereignty, the Solidarity for Progress, the Progressive Federation of Students and other organizations of different circles in the Republic of Korea made public a statement on the 2nd, demanding the resignation of puppet Yoon Suk Yeol and repeal of fascist laws,” the outlet claimed, without specifying any “fascist laws” they opposed.
“It stressed the need to oust Yoon Suk Yeol hell-bent on fascist suppression at once and abrogate the evil laws,” it asserted.
Voice of Korea also highlighted a petition of South Korean Catholics who called for Yoon to resign. Catholicism, and all Christianity, is illegal in North Korea.
North Korean state media regularly highlights any left-wing opposition to Yoon’s government, and did so long before the martial law crisis this week. Voice of Korea published two articles last week in this vein, claiming there was “mass resistance of people from all walks of life” against Yoon.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Wednesday that most people in North Korea are not aware of the political chaos south of their border – but suggested that a reason for Pyongyang hiding the news could be that the opposition against Yoon successfully ending the martial law order in a short amount of time could inspire North Koreans to rise up against their government.
“North Korean officials working in China said they were shocked to learn that South Korea’s president declared martial law,” RFA noted, “but even more shocked to learn that the National Assembly quickly overturned the order, saying such defiance would be ‘unthinkable’ in North Korea.”
The U.S.-based outlet cited North Koreans who work on the Chinese border and thus have access to international news, who described themselves as “moved” to see the public have the power to overrule a presidential order.
“I was especially moved to see that the resolution lifting martial law was passed in the assembly, and then the president himself announced to the people that he was lifting martial law,” an unnamed North Korean trader was quoted as saying, adding that such a situation would have led to a “bloodbath” in the North.
Another anonymous witness in North Korea told RFA that watching the developments in the South helped him “realize what democracy is truly like.”
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