Listener supported, WNYC Studios.

Brian Laird on WNYC.

Now we'll look abroad to a crisis of democracy occurring not in the United States, but in South Korea, one of the United States' strongest allies in that part of the world.

On Tuesday night in the nation's capital, Seoul, President Yun-Sukyol declared martial law seemingly out of nowhere,

while the order lasted less than three hours, the country plunged into a political crisis.

Currently, the president there, President Yun, faces cause for impeachment from both protesters

in the streets and the National Assembly,

Korean's version of Congress. While Yun still stands, his defense minister, Kim Jong-hun,

has resigned in hopes of appeasing the fury and protecting the leader. Joining me now to recap the events in South Korea so far,

and also to talk about whether there's a lesson to be learned for the United States

from a head of state trying to move toward authoritarianism

in what we generally otherwise consider a democracy,

is Brian Peach, reporter covering foreign affairs for the International Desk at the Washington Post

and has a South Korean background,

and Anthony Cune, NPR International correspondent based in Seoul.

Brian, welcome to WNYC and Anthony. Thanks for coming on this one little NPR affiliate.

Hi. Hey, nice to join you.

Hi. Thanks for having us.

Brian, you want to start and define what exactly martial law is or was supposed to be in this

context, what powers it would have granted to the president?

Sure. So essentially martial law in this context gave power to the military to control everything

in the country. So this comes from Article 77 of the South Korean Constitution, which says that the president

...