Around 10pm on December 3rd Yoon Suk Yeol, the conservative president of South Korea, suddenly declared martial law: banning all political parties and severely curbing media freedom. Soldiers were deployed to the parliament building and riot police lined the roads.

A conservative, Mr. Yoon won the presidency in 2022 by a slim margin, promising a more confrontational stance against North Korea. He quickly became unpopular and divisive at home.