2024-12-04
11 分钟Plus, how money to protect pandas is really spent.
From the New York Times, it's the headlines.
I'm Tracy Mumford.
Today is Wednesday, December 4th.
Here's what we're covering.
I'm Douglas Schorsman and I lead coverage of Asia for the New York Times.
I'm based in our newsroom in Seoul, South Korea.
And yesterday seemed to be a pretty calm day and pretty quiet.
And then it really was not.
Around 10:30pm all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the president,
Yoon Suk Yeol, was suddenly on national television declaring a state of martial law.
And this wasn't aimed at a foreign power.
It was aimed at his own political opponents at home in a very chilling way.
In a shocking announcement, the highly unpopular president of South Korea,
Yoon Suk Yul, accused his opponents of trying to overthrow the country's democracy.
And he appointed an army general who banned protests and declared that he would take control of the media.
The timing of the decision has struck most as being impulsive and probably not fully baked before he made his move.
My colleague Choi Sung Hoon has talked to people who know President Yoon and have been with him recently,
and they describe him as a man who was becoming despondent as he grew more politically isolated in recent weeks,
Demonstrations calling for his impeachment had been growing day by day.
Scandals were piling up on him and his wife.