Mick Hartley

More from the Daily NK, this time on reactions within North Korea to South Korea's president Yoon and his abortive attempt to impose martial law. While high-ups in Pyongyang were aware of the situation, and kept the entire military on an emergency footing for around 18 hours after Yoon’s martial law declaration, the general public were never informed:

North Korean media provided to the general public, including the Rodong Sinmun newspaper and Korean Central Television, have not covered the martial law incident at all.

The Rodong Sinmun’s lack of coverage of this issue — despite its frequent articles about demonstrations calling for Yoon’s resignation — appears to be due to concerns about how North Koreans would react to the news that the president’s martial law declaration was countermanded by the National Assembly.

In North Korea, the orders of the supreme leader take priority over the Constitution, as well as resolutions of the Supreme People’s Assembly (North Korea’s legislature, similar to the South Korea’s National Assembly). The regime apparently fears that if North Koreans were to learn that the South Korean president’s orders had been immediately invalidated by the National Assembly, it could encourage them to entertain fantasies about democracy.

In fact, North Korean party officials were more surprised that the martial law order was lifted by South Korea’s National Assembly than that it was declared in the first place.

“How could an order given by the president be rescinded by the National Assembly? Officials were shocked to learn the order was immediately canceled because of opposition from the National Assembly,” the source said. 

“If the South Korean government’s unilateral martial law declaration had gone into effect, the North Korean regime would have immediately used that in propaganda about the chaotic political situation in South Korea. But since the martial law declaration was canceled through the democracy process, the regime is uncomfortable with sharing those facts with the public,” Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told Daily NK.