BRINGING BACK MEMORIES
For many citizens, Yoon’s actions brought back memories of this coup. The country has a dark political past, having been under authoritarian rule for nearly three decades before becoming a democracy.
One Seoul resident told CNA: “At first, I felt a bit uneasy. I thought, ‘Is this another part of something like the Chun Doo-hwan era’?
“I wondered, ‘Could they really be repeating what happened back then’?”
Another resident called Yoon’s move “humilitating” and an insult to the South Korean people.
More have also been turning to Netflix to try to make sense of the turmoil – the film 12.12: The Day, which depicts the events of the 1979 coup, has topped the streaming platform’s South Korean movie rankings since last week.
SAFEGUARDS IN CONSTITUTION
As the nation moved towards democracy, South Korea’s 1987 Constitution introduced several key safeguards.
These include limiting the president to a single five-year term, to prevent a prolonged concentration of power seen during authoritarian regimes.
Another safeguard is having legislative oversight of executive actions, such as the power to impeach the president with a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly and overturn a martial law decree with a simple majority vote.
