Dealing with Political Unrest While Abroad

By Malaikha West, Seoul National University, South Korea

Martial Law. Political Rallies. Presidential Impeachment. You never think it will happen around you.
Until it does.

It was 22:27 on the 12th of December when President Yoon declared Martial Law over South Korea. I was in bed doom-scrolling (as you do) when I got a notification about being under Martial Law. Martial Law? As in the same Martial Law that I have learned about in my studies? Surely not. Initially, I thought it was a spam notification, until two minutes later I received the same notification through the AIG Travel Alerts on my email. I sat up and looked over at my roommate. She is Korean, so maybe she could tell me what was going on.. I showed her the notification, and she immediately went into the kitchen to ring her family. I turned on the South Korean National live news and watched it all play out. The South Korean President had declared Martial Law – essentially trapping all who lived in the country under military rule. It was very scary. But I was tired, and I had class the next day, so I needed to get to sleep. I hoped that by the time I woke up, it would be announced that it was all some bad practical joke.

It was not.
It was all over the news, my inbox full of alerts from the University, the Government, the political information journals I’d signed up for. I’m glad I did. A lot of people I spoke to received the news later than I did. I still had to go to class, but inside, I was a little bit afraid of going outside. I checked the UoM page of what I should do in these situations. I made sure to always take my passport out with me, in case I get stopped by the authorities, I was not out late, and I made sure to avoid any areas of political rallies as much as possible. The last one was a little bit tricky though, as my university was the centre of some of the biggest student rallies regarding the Martial Law Declaration.

In the end though, the area where I lived remained largely unaffected, and I was able to go about my daily life as usual. It is important to remember in these types of situations that as long as you take the necessary precautions and follow the relevant advice, then you should be fine to continue as you ordinarily would. The news can make things seem scarier than they are, or closer to home than you’d like to see, but at the same time, the news that tanks were patrolling the streets, or that the soldiers were marching, and indeed the political demonstrations that followed Yoon’s declaration were all at least one district over, and usually happened around the area known as Yeouido. That meant that the district I lived in (Gwanak-gu) held relatively few demonstrations, compared to the huge rallies held outside the National Assembly.

My Korean friends invited me to join them in the Seoul National University demonstrations, and while (due to the nature of my degree) I found the whole situation very intriguing and desperately wanted to experience the phenomenon of large-scale political student rallies, I knew that it would not be good for me to participate directly. I supported my friends from the sidelines, but I needed to follow the advice given to me by the UK Government and the UoM.

The reason that Yoon’s declaration sent such huge shockwaves through Korea is that he essentially tried to replicate Chun Doo-hwan’s Declaration of Martial Law through his Military Coup of 1979. This authoritarian move went against the democracy that the people of Korea fought and died for not even 50 years ago. The Martial Law declaration led to widespread student protesting, which, while I am skipping over a lot of the history leading up to it, ultimately resulted in one of the most prolific cases of oppression and violent massacres known in the history of Korea – the 1980 Gwangju Uprising. The uprising began when students attending Chonnam University demonstrated against Chun’s 1970s military regime, and came to a head when, on May 18th, 1980, the protesters were fired upon by the South Korean military, under the orders of the authority. They were killed, beaten and tortured indiscriminately by both the police and the army, and while this particular uprising failed to achieve its goal, it sparked a wave of liberal activism which created the democracy seen in South Korea today.

Thus, it is no surprise that Yoon’s declaration was not well received by the public. Having fought so hard for so many years for democracy, the South Korean people did not stand silently by when that very same democracy was being threatened. Yoon’s attempt at authoritarianism was very quickly squashed, and 4 months later, he was formally impeached and removed as president. Throughout this period, while slowing down in both number and size, the protests remained as vibrant and strong as ever. It remained important for me to continue following the advice given to me and stay vigilant and updated regarding the political situation.

Should such a thing occur while you take your year abroad, my biggest piece of advice is: don’t feel too scared. If you remain level-headed – get into contact with the university, visit the British Embassy of the country you’re in, keep updating yourself regarding the situation, you’ll eventually see that these types of political occurrences don’t really directly affect you. There may be areas you should try to avoid, or you may accidentally come across the protests, but when all is said and done, as a foreigner living in another country, your daily life will likely have very little change!

Here are some links to relevant advice pages on the UoM and the UK Government websites:

Gov.uk Foreign Travel Advice: http://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice
UoM Links to relevant Advice pages and Information: https://www.goabroad.manchester.ac.uk/preparing-to-go/safety-abroad/