It was a sleepless night for some. “At first I was excited to think that I wouldn’t be going to school today,” 15-year-old Kwon Hoo told the BBC in Seoul on Wednesday. “But then I had a feeling of dread that kept me up all night.”
“No words can express how afraid I am that things could turn out for our people like in North Korea,” a South Korean, who did not want to be named, told BBC OS.
In the meantime, information spread that special forces were brought to the building of the assembly. Helicopters could be heard overhead as they circled the sky before landing on the roof of Parliament.
Reporters jostled in the crowd outside the gate, cameras clicking.
As concerns grew that the government could clamp down on the media, journalists in Seoul kept in touch with each other, sharing tips on how to stay safe.
Ahn Gwi-ryong, a 35-year-old representative of the opposition Democratic Party, faced soldiers at gunpoint. A video of her pulling the barrel of a soldier’s rifle went viral.
“I wasn’t thinking about anything intellectual or rational, I was just thinking, ‘We have to stop this, if we don’t stop this, nothing else will,'” she told the BBC.
“Honestly, I was a little scared at first when I first saw the martial law troops. I thought, “Could this happen in 21st century Korea, especially in the National Assembly?”
“After such a storm last night, it was hard to come back to reality,” she added, recalling the previous night. “I felt like I was witnessing the regression of history.”
