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Written by Andres Salazar

South Korea was on the front page of countless news outlets in December for an unexpected reason. To the surprise of the entire nation, the country’s President, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law on December 3rd, 2024 (Kim, H. & Kim, T., 2024). Coincidentally, I had travelled to Seoul and landed at Incheon International Airport only a handful of hours prior to the beginning of the country’s military control. The stint of martial law was brief but still caused immense distress to residents and tourists alike. While the country returned to a fragile normalcy in less than six hours  (Kim, H. & Kim, T., 2024), it brought to mind an important reminder: your travels are probably going to be just fine. Still, it’s a good idea to have at least some emergency resources ready to go, no matter how small the risk may be. 

A brief timeline of President Yoon’s failed insurgency 

For the most part, December 3rd, 2024 was a regular Tuesday. There weren’t many things of note throughout the day until suddenly, at 10:23 pm local time, when South Korea’s President, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law. This was a massive shock to the entire country, including many of President Yoon’s political colleagues. 

While the official reason cited was protecting the nation against North Korean escalation (Lim et al., 2024), many experts and political analysts viewed it as a massive power grab (Choe et al., 2024). As soon as martial law hit, so did a curfew, demanding that everyone go home. However, in protest of the attempt to create a dictatorship, thousands of locals gathered around different spots of Seoul, demanding the impeachment of President Yoon (Ewe et al., 2024). 

Over at the South Korean parliament, the members of the National Assembly were trying to enter the building to vote on the legitimacy of Yoon’s martial law. News broadcasts were flooded with viewers watching intently as military personnel were wrestling the country’s representatives, preventing them from entering the parliament. Eventually, members of parliament were able to sneak into the assembly hall and unanimously voted that the martial law was unconstitutional, effectively ending the coup at 1:00 am (Kuhn, 2024).

The entire ordeal was less than six hours (Kim, H. & Kim, T., 2024). The following day was pretty much normal, with work schedules and daily activities left mostly untouched. The fallout of the insurgency, however, was all over the news. Lawmakers jumped to impeach President Yoon as soon as possible, initiating the process on Wednesday, December 4th (Choe et al., 2024). Criticisms were plenty, both from the country’s main opposition party as well as Yoon’s own colleagues. Yoon’s martial law was even later denounced by the leader of his own party, Han Dong-Hoon (Jung, 2024). 

At the time of writing this article, South Korea has had not one but two new acting presidents after the impeachment of Yoon and his successor (Shin, 2024). For now, the people of South Korea are still on edge, not knowing what to expect from the country’s leadership. There is, however, a slight relief knowing that democracy survived, even if only by a fine thread. 

Learning to stay safe internationally

My arrival in Korea, only a couple of hours before the insurgency, started like any regular trip. Aside from the delicious street food, the only other thing I was thinking about was my week’s sightseeing itinerary. It goes without saying that I wasn’t expecting to be only about a thirty-minute walk away from a parliament at the center of a military and political crisis. What made the whole thing so much worse was the realization that I had never even thought about an emergency plan in case something like this occurred. However, the entire ordeal incited some reflection on general tips for international safety. To avoid getting caught completely blind, preparing before your trip can genuinely save you when the needle drops. 

If you get caught in the middle of something sticky during your travels, your documents will be more valuable than gold. Make sure that you always know where your ID and your passport are. In a sense, having the coup last only a matter of hours after arriving in Korea was a stroke of luck, as I never even got to empty my bag in the first place. A pro tip is having digital backups of everything in case you lose track of them. If you’re visiting a country that requires a visa, keep that on you as well. The last thing you want is to get caught in the middle of some heat while not being able to prove who you even are. 

Having the right contacts ready is equally as important. Before setting off on your next adventure, get to know the phone number and email of the Canadian embassy in the country you’ll be in. This is useful to know, even for small emergencies. Embassies often help with even minor issues, like losing your passport or getting sick and not knowing which hospital to go to. In more pressing or dangerous emergencies, embassies can set you up in a safe area or get adequate legal support. This is probably the easiest way to ensure extra safety when overseas; you only need to do a quick Google search and save the contact information on your phone or computer’s notes. That, coupled with having a digital copy of your IDs, will definitely come in handy, should the need arise. 

At one point in time, having mobile data on your phone while overseas costs an arm and a leg. To save on costs, most people preferred going without Wi-Fi until they got to a place with public internet access or until they returned to the hotel. These days, however, international roaming fees are much cheaper. E-sims and international data can sometimes be purchased for as little as five to fifteen dollars a day. Buying one of these data plans could be an essential tool; you don’t want to get stuck in a public emergency without knowing what’s happening because you can’t access the internet. Take the time before your trip to familiarize yourself with what data and wifi plans are available so that you can stay on top of any situation with live news updates and a reliable communication network. 

Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst

To be perfectly honest, most travels are going to be perfectly safe. The most common dangers while in a foreign country come in the form of mild food poisoning, accidentally overpaying for something, or the occasional pickpocket. However, having some safety precautions ready never hurts, even if you don’t expect anything bad to happen. As cheesy as it sounds, you don’t expect anything to happen to you – until it actually does. December 3rd started like any other Tuesday but ended with democracy surviving by a thread. Although it was a dreadfully stressful couple of hours, there was something to be appreciated; it was incredibly refreshing to see how people immediately started fighting as soon as democracy was on the chopping block. But, while the country returned to a fragile normalcy pretty quickly, the entire thing was a stern reminder that you should always be prepared in case an emergency breaks out. 

References 

Choe, S., Yoon, J., Kim, V., Fuller, T. (2024, December 4). Lawmakers Move to Impeach South Korean Leader After Failed Martial Law Bid. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/world/asia/south-korea-impeach-yoon.html. 

Ewe, K., Wong, T., Marsh, N., Kwon, J., Ku, Y. (2024, December 4). Fear, fury and triumph: Six hours that shook South Korea. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98lygwd837o. 

Jung, M. (2024, December 4). Ruling party leader denounces Yoon’s declaration of emergency martial law. The Korea Herald. https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10012288. 

Kim, H.,Kim, H. (2024, December 12). South Korea’s Yoon defends martial law as an act of governance and vows to ‘fight to the end’. The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-martial-law-yoon-76af91dfc6a252a536ee1d80c0bdfccd. 

Lim, A., Ji, S., Cha, V. (2024, December 3). Yoon Declares Martial Law in South Korea. Center for Strategic & International Studies. https://www.csis.org/analysis/yoon-declares-martial-law-south-korea. 

Shin, M. (2024, December 27). South Korean Acting President Han Duck-soo Impeached. The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2024/12/south-korean-acting-president-han-duck-soo-impeached/.