00:00Call it ill-advised, improper, and totally irresponsible,
00:03but South Korean President Yun Suk-kyo's perception of a clear and present danger
00:08of North Korean spies in the halls of Parliament or elsewhere in the bureaucracy
00:12did not suffice at all or warrant a declaration of military rule.
00:16And when he finally declared this emergency measure in his toolkit,
00:19it awoke an enraged citizenry and prompted a defiant Parliament to resist his call
00:24and threaten impeachment against him if he did not walk back his order.
00:29Military rule or martial law is clearly a dictator's escape hatch or go-to weapon
00:33to keep the public under control and to assume complete control of civilian life and civil liberties.
00:40Something South Korea since the 70s and 80s saw with chilling and terrifying consequences
00:45that nearly ruined its cherished ways and ideals of democracy,
00:49much like it almost did ours some 50 years ago.
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