What is Martial Law and its Role in South Korea?

Introduction

Freedom is commonly defined as the ability to live your life, speak up, and pick your own leaders without looking over your shoulder. But for a lot of South Koreans stuck under military rule in the 20th century, freedom was more like a far-off wish than anything real. Their everyday lives were controlled by martial law. Basically, that’s when soldiers push aside the regular police, and the army takes control instead of the people in charge you actually voted for. On paper, martial law is supposed to be for real emergencies - think wars or natural disasters - but in South Korea, it also turned into a go-to move for those at the top to silence critics and keep a tight grip on power during times. By examining its implementation at different points - during the Korean War, under Park Chung-hee's Yusin System, and in the lead-up to the Gwangju Uprising - we can analyze how this extreme measure was used to consolidate power in times of national upheaval.

 

What is Martial Law?

To understand its impact, we must first understand what martial law is. Imagine if, one day, soldiers instead of police officers started patrolling your town. They could give you a curfew, decide what news you are allowed to hear (censorship), and arrest you without giving a reason. The normal laws that protect your rights are put on hold. This is martial law.

 

It is supposed to be a temporary emergency measure. For example, if a city is destroyed by an earthquake, martial law could be used to stop looting and organise rescue efforts. However, all things have both their positive and negative sides. Martial law poses the danger of giving a small group of people total power. In South Korea, this temporary measure sometimes became a permanent way for generals to rule the country with an iron fist. 

 

The Early Years: Martial Law as a Weapon Against Rebellion

Syngman Rhee became South Korea’s first president in 1948. His government was new and unstable, and surrounded by threats. He faced a crisis on Jeju Island (an island off the south of Korea) - people on Jeju had always felt disregarded by the mainland government. A lot of them hated the idea of splitting Korea into two. By 1948, these frustrations exploded into a widespread rebellion. The government in Seoul saw this not as a protest but as a direct threat to its authority. Their response was swift and severe: they declared martial law on Jeju Island.

 

The military, along with pro-government youth groups, was ordered to crush the uprising at any cost. They used brutal tactics, burning villages and arresting or killing anyone they suspected of being a rebel. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians - men, women, and children - were killed. From the government's perspective, it was a necessary, if harsh, operation to eliminate a security threat.

 

Defence Against Foreign Invasion and Control Chaos

When the Korean War started in June 1950, Rhee declared martial law over the entire country. At this time, the main goal was simply to survive. North Korea's army had invaded and quickly took over most of South Korea. Declaring martial law was a direct reaction to this extreme danger. The government used it to:

• Get people ready for war.

• Keep supply routes and communication lines open.

• Stop suspected communist supporters from causing trouble inside the country.

• Keep order when society was falling apart.

In this situation, martial law worked as a temporary, emergency measure to defend against a foreign invasion and control the chaos of a major war.

 

Park Chung-hee - Martial Law Reinstated

After Rhee was forced to leave office in 1960, the country experienced a brief period of democracy. This did not last long. In 1961, a general named Park Chung-hee led a coup d'état. He dissolved the parliament and declared martial law across the entire country with the reasoning that he needed to save the nation from corruption and poverty.

 

Park eventually held elections and became president, but he never truly gave up his military mindset. For years, he used small, "emergency" declarations to control his opponents. But his most dramatic move came in 1972. Facing growing protests and a limit on how long he could be president, Park decided to make himself ruler for life. He did this by creating the Yusin Constitution.

 

The Yusin System was essentially martial law disguised as a new law. It dissolved the National Assembly, banned all political protests, and gave Park's secret police, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), the power to arrest, torture, and imprison anyone without a trial. The country was not officially under martial law, but it felt the same. People could be arrested for simply criticising the government. The press was not allowed to report bad news. Park had used the legal system to create a permanent state of emergency, giving himself the absolute power that martial law always provides. 

 

The Gwangju Uprising

Park Chung-hee was assassinated by his own spy chief in 1979. For a moment, there was hope that democracy might return. The acting president declared a nationwide martial law to keep order during the confusion. But this hope was quickly shattered by another general, Chun Doo-hwan.

 

Chun used the martial law army to help him take power in a "coup within a coup." He arrested his rivals and placed even stricter controls on the country. The people, especially students and young pro-democracy activists, had had enough. In the city of Gwangju in May 1980, they began to protest. They demanded the end of martial law and the return of democracy.

 

The military's response was swift.. Chun sent special forces soldiers, trained for war, into the city. These soldiers brutally beat and shot unarmed protesters. Outraged, the citizens of Gwangju fought back, taking control of their city for several days. In response, the army surrounded Gwangju with tanks and soldiers. They stormed the city, shooting anyone they saw on the streets, killing many citizens.

 

Conclusion

The history of martial law in South Korea reveals its dual and contradictory nature. Deployed as a legitimate measure for wartime survival during the Korean War, it has also been misused as an instrument to suppress internal dissent. Ultimately, martial law is a complicated method of control that could be used either for the better or worse in a country. 

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Glossary

• Censorship: The control of information and ideas circulated within a society..

• Coup d'état (or Coup): A French term meaning "blow to the state." It is a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government, usually by a small group of people, often military leaders.

• Curfew: A law that requires people to stay indoors between certain hours, usually at night.

• Democracy: A system of government where the people hold the power, usually by electing representatives through free and fair elections.

• Dictatorship: A form of government where a single person or a small group has absolute power, with no meaningful political opposition or citizen participation

• Rebellion: An act of violent or open resistance to an established government or ruler.

• Yusin System: A Korean term meaning "revitalizing reforms." It was the name given to the authoritarian constitution created by President Park Chung-hee in 1972, which gave him dictatorial control over South Korea.

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References

(2025, April 3). About Jeju April 3rd Uprising and Massacre. Retrieved October 29, 2025, from https://www.jejudarktours.org/en/about-jeju-april-3rd-uprising-and-massacre/ 

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Prison, exile, impeachment: The scandalous history of South Korea's presidents. (2025, April 3). BBC. Retrieved October 29, 2025, from https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93gqwek5jyo 

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Research Guides: South Korean Democratization Movement (1960s-1980s): A Resource Guide : Kwangju Uprising (1980). (2025, August 14). Library of Congress Research Guides. Retrieved October 29, 2025, from https://guides.loc.gov/south-korean-democratization-movement/kwangju-uprising 

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The unravelling of South Korea's martial law president. (2025, April 3). BBC. Retrieved October 29, 2025, from https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c86py30qezvo