Seoul – South Korea’s Nationwide Meeting Speaker Woo Gained-shik has emerged as an unlikely image of management throughout the nation’s ongoing political turmoil, triggered by President Yoon Suk-yeol’s temporary declaration of martial law on December 3.
Regardless of holding South Korea’s second-highest workplace after the presidency, the meeting’s speaker has traditionally had a low-profile function, working behind the scenes of political life.
In contrast to the Speaker of the USA Home of Representatives, who drives Washington’s legislative agenda because the chief of the bulk occasion, South Korea’s parliamentary speaker is required by legislation to surrender occasion affiliation upon election to keep up neutrality. The vast majority of audio system additionally retire after their time period.
However Woo’s decisive but measured actions throughout the recent crisis seem to have upended the standard view of the speaker and their function.
“Seeing somebody like him step up and act decisively in such a vital second was refreshing,” Yoo Junghoon, a lawyer and political columnist, advised Al Jazeera.
“It allowed voters – each younger and previous – to grasp that such succesful politicians nonetheless exist,” Yoo mentioned.
South Korean youth even gave Woo the nickname “Nationwide Meeting Thor” — a nod to his gavel of workplace and the Marvel superhero’s wielding of his mighty hammer.
A current Gallup Korea ballot confirmed that 56 p.c of respondents expressed belief in Woo, an uncommon determine in a rustic the place belief within the Nationwide Meeting has fallen to simply 20.6 p.c, in response to an OECD survey 2024.
Pupil protester to ‘Thor’ of constitutional process
As a younger scholar activist, Woo was imprisoned for 3 years after protesting in opposition to the army dictatorship that expanded martial legislation in 1980, following the assassination of President Park Chung-hee in 1979.
The crackdown culminated within the lethal Gwangju Rebellion of Could 1980.
After President Yoon declared martial legislation on the evening of December 3, the 67-year-old Woo scaled the Nationwide Meeting fence after police barricaded the doorway to try to stop lawmakers from coming into and holding a vote to overturn the president’s order.
“I knew we had the constitutional authority to carry martial legislation,” Woo recalled later in a information convention.
“I didn’t hesitate. I needed to get contained in the meeting, it doesn’t matter what,” he mentioned.
Whilst South Korean particular forces troopers superior on the meeting constructing, Woo insisted on following the proper legislative procedures regardless of mounting stress from anxious politicians urging him to hurry up the method by probably slicing a couple of corners.
“In moments like this, following the proper process with out error is much more very important,” Woo advised his frightened colleagues within the surrounding meeting chamber.
At one level, troops got here dangerously near coming into the principle chamber the place lawmakers have been voting, prompting a tense standoff with meeting workers.
The essential vote proceeded, with the entire 190 lawmakers current – of the 300-seat Meeting – voting in favour of repealing martial legislation.
“There have been many reactions on social media questioning why [Woo] was so fixated on following legislative procedures,” Yoo, the political columnist mentioned.
“However now, even these opposing impeachment [against President Yoon] can’t discover fault with the method he upheld,” Yoo mentioned.
Bong Younger-shik, a analysis fellow at Yonsei College’s Institute for North Korean Research, attributed the peaceable decision of the chaotic scenario, with out civilian casualties, to Woo’s emphasis on adhering diligently to constitutional procedures.
“In such an surprising and grave scenario, each conservatives and progressives discovered Woo reliable,” Bong mentioned.
“We noticed that this method labored precisely as supposed,” he mentioned.
‘South Korea is robust. Its individuals are resilient’
Woo additionally adhered to strict constitutional procedures throughout the first, failed impeachment vote against President Yoon, on December 7, for declaring martial legislation and plunging the nation into disaster.
With Yoon’s governing occasion boycotting the vote to dam the impeachment try, Woo saved the legislative session open for hours, an uncommon transfer, urging politicians to return and fulfil their constitutional obligation to forged a vote.
Two governing occasion lawmakers did return to the chamber to forged their ballots.
Woo solely closed the session at about 9:20pm, explaining that he might not let the protesters, who had gathered outdoors the meeting in freezing climate to demand Yoon’s impeachment, wait indefinitely for a outcome.
After the successful, second impeachment vote held per week later, Woo known as for a return to normalcy in all points of life in South Korea and for the general public to maneuver ahead collectively.
“I hope your year-end is a bit happier,” Woo mentioned on the time, encouraging South Koreans to renew Christmas vacation celebrations and gatherings, conscious of the toll the turmoil had taken on struggling small companies at a key time of 12 months.
“His phrases conveyed that means immediately,” mentioned Yoo, the political columnist.
Woo has acknowledged his rising public profile and newfound reputation, however with uncommon humility.
“I heard younger individuals name me the ‘Nationwide Meeting Thor’. I discover it amusing,” he mentioned throughout a current information convention.
He attributed the newfound public consideration on the speaker’s function in politics to not himself personally, however to the collective efforts of the meeting’s lawmakers, workers, in addition to engaged residents.
Requested about his personal future ambitions, together with a possible presidential bid, Woo dismissed the thought.
As an alternative, he emphasised the necessity for constitutional reform to deal with the recurring instability that has plagued South Korea’s presidencies since its transition to democracy in 1987.
“Our present structure, drafted in 1987, is outdated,” he mentioned, including that it wanted “reforms that replicate the societal modifications of the previous 4 many years”.
Woo additionally had a message for individuals around the globe who had watched with shock as South Korean troops have been deployed throughout President Yoon’s temporary declaration of martial legislation.
“South Korea is robust. Its individuals are resilient,” he mentioned.
“Whereas the world might have been startled by the martial legislation declaration, South Korea stays safe, secure, and assured in its future,” he added.
