MILITARY MOBILISED: South Korea announces emergency martial law

In a late-night emergency TV address, President Yoon Suk Yeol said the step was “critical for defending the country’s constitutional order”.

The president accused the country’s opposition of controlling the parliament, sympathising with North Korea and paralysing the government with anti-state activities.

Parliamentary activity has been banned and medical staff have been ordered to return to work in 48 hours.

Shortly after the announcement South Korea’s main opposition, the Democratic Party, called on all its lawmakers to assemble at the National Assembly, the country’s legislative body.

Troops could be seen preparing to enter building, with police stopping people from entering and helicopters circling overhead.

The South Korean parliament voted to block martial law after the president’s shock announcement early on Wednesday morning, with all 190 members present in favour.

Protesters have gathered at the gates of the National Assembly chanting “no to martial law” and “strike down the dictatorship’, the BBC reports.

According to Yonhap news agency, those who violate martial law can be arrested without warrant.

Yoon’s stunning announcement came as his party and the opposition bicker over the budget, parliamentary committee.

The opposition has slashed approximately 4.1 trillion won (AU$4.4 billion) from Yoon’s proposed 677 trillion won budget plan, cutting the government’s reserve fund and activity budgets for Yoon’s office, the prosecution, police and the state audit agency.

Yoon, a former prosecutor, accused opposition lawmakers of cutting “all key budgets essential to the nation’s core functions, such as combatting drug crimes and maintaining public security... turning the country into a drug haven and a state of public safety chaos.”

Meanwhile, Yoon’s approval rating dropped to 19 percent in the latest Gallup poll last week, with many expressing dissatisfaction over his handling of the economy and controversies involving his wife, Kim Keon Hee

Democratic South Korea is a major ally for the United States in Asia, and a spokesman for the US National Security Council said Washington was “monitoring the situation closely”.

The UK government also said it was “closely monitoring developments” and urged Britons to avoid political demonstrations in South Korea.

Tensions soar between South and North Korea

In recent years, border tensions have soared between South and North Korea who are technically still at war as a peace treaty was never signed after the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Pyongyang has amended its constitution to declare South Korea a “hostile state”.

Dictator Kim Jong-un has pulled out of treaties, demolished unification monuments, and blown up road and railway links connecting the two nations, sparking military tensions.

A Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) was created to separate the two countries.

It is one of the most heavily mined places on Earth - strewn with landmines to deter enemy troops.

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s decision to impose martial law comes after North Korea branded him the “vicious main culprit” blaming him for the hostile situation between the two nations.

A picture was displayed at the centre of Pyongyang that showed Suk Yeol visiting a military unit.

The picture was captioned: “The venomous remarks of scoundrel Yoon Suk Yeol causing destruction.

“The vicious main culprit of the confrontation mentality against the Republic.”

The display also targeted South Korea’s alliance with the US, describing it as an “aggressive treaty”.

In recent months, tensions have also grown over balloons of trash floated from North Korea, which Pyongyang says are a response to balloons carrying anti-regime leaflets sent by activists in the South.

Earlier this year, South Korea fired warning shots at North Korean soldiers twice in one week after troops crossed the border.

Meanwhile, deranged dictator Kim has been laying more landmines, reinforcing roads and adding what looks like anti-tank barriers on the South’s doorstep.

Satellite images suggest the North is also building new defence lines right on the border - risking “escalation” and “bloodshed”, experts have warned.

And Kim has been intensifying weapons tests as the US, South Korea and Japan host a flurry of war games in the region.

In a brazen intimidation move, North Korea sent a wave of 260 filthy faeces-filled balloons to South Korea.

Speaking to The Sun, Michael Madden, director and founder of NK Leadership Watch, said a “serious escalation” on the Korean peninsula would be triggered by “several days of incidents near the border”.

These “incidents” - including shots being fired - would unfold “for a period of about five days to a week before a serious escalation in tensions”.

This could then spark a “strategic miscalculation which could incite a larger conflict”.

“There are a number of tripwires and forums before it would reach that point,” he added. Armed with an arsenal of nukes and chemical weapons, experts have warned a war with tyrant Kim Jong-un could be one of the bloodiest in history.

- With The Sun.