Viral: South Korean opposition leader climbs fence to enter the Parliament

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol in a shocking move declared emergency martial law, taking the country as well as the world on December 3. His move triggered massive protests amongst South Korean citizens and opposition parties. Yoon Suk Yeol justified his move by declaring that the opposition was working as an “anti-state force intent on overthrowing the regime.”
The President while declaring the emergency said, “To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate antistate elements, … I hereby declare emergency martial law. With no regard for the livelihoods of the people, the opposition party has paralyzed governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice.”

In a surprising move, the leader of South Korea's opposition party, Lee Jae-myung, decided to climb the fence of the parliament to get inside and vote against the resident's motion for martial law. As per the leaders, they were stopped by masked soldiers at the gate of parliament. To add to the drama, the parliamentarian also went live on YouTube and recorded himself climbing the fence.
Democratic Party politician Lee Jae-myung, while starting a live YouTube stream from his car, urged South Koreans to gather at the parliament to assist lawmakers in entering the building. “The National Assembly must vote to lift martial law,” he declared, according to an AP report.

He further said, “The economy of the Republic of Korea will collapse irretrievably. My fellow citizens, please come to the National Assembly." Within hours of the martial law declaration, approximately 190 lawmakers successfully entered the National Assembly and unanimously passed a motion to block the imposition of martial law and demand its immediate lifting.

While the YouTube video has about 2.6 million views, a clip that was posted by X user, @XXIBGOD_, has about 17 million views and about 10k comments on it. One user commented, “ I’m in tears at the sight of him running to the main conference hall as fast as he can, even if it means jumping over the wall at the age of 60.”
Lee Jae-myung, 60, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), narrowly lost the 2022 presidential election to Yoon Suk Yeol, and since the two have had a rocky dynamic.