National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik announces the passage of President Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment motion at a plenary session of the National Assembly on December 14 last year. Yonhap News

Guest Editorial Writer, Korea Military Academy Class of '84In the early winter of 2025, South Korea remains trapped in the time of December 3, a year prior. The ruling party and the Presidential Office's term "sedition" circulates like a slogan for "annihilating the enemy." The ruling party, under the guise of "upholding the Constitution," attempts to judge the past by searching public officials' mobile phones. The opposition party resists this, calling it "political purges," while on one side, claims contrary to public sentiment are being leaked, stating that "martial law should be apologized for." A war of history between truth and justice is underway, yet on the other hand, it's as if they are surrendering before a verdict has even been reached. The situation is one of two sides splitting and rushing towards civil war by only engaging in political calculations.

This self-inflicted farce, where we fight among ourselves, leading to international isolation and failing to see the enemy's provocations from abroad, is the best-case scenario for Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping. I ask the politicians who are expanding the sedition investigation, pushing even public officials to be labeled as sedition perpetrators, and pressuring trials through unprecedented searches of judges, in the face of a "right to survival" crisis that jeopardizes the nation's existence: Do you truly understand the definition of "sedition," the most fearsome criminal offense, before spewing this "sedition" rhetoric?

Article 87 of the Criminal Act stipulates that "a person who incites a rebellion with the purpose of excluding state power from all or part of the territory of the Republic of Korea or disrupting the national constitution" constitutes sedition. If the current administration's rampage, which cruelly seeks to obliterate the free world through legislative warfare, leveraging its majority seats, is a "cold sedition," then isn't North Korea's regime, which illegally occupies our constitutional territory and threatens the lives of its citizens with nuclear missiles, the true "constitutional sedition" that should be suppressed?

1. Legal Reasons Why the December 3 Martial Law Could Not Be Sedition

   The December 3 emergency martial law does not constitute sedition under the Criminal Act. It was an act of governance, exercising the President's inherent authority to declare martial law, as guaranteed by Article 77 of the Constitution, not an illegal seizure of power aimed at destroying the Constitution. For sedition to be established, the "purpose of disrupting the national constitution" and "rebellion" are essential requirements. At that time, former President Yoon Suk-yeol had only a defensive objective of safeguarding the liberal democratic system in a national security crisis; he had no intention of overthrowing state institutions or permanently suspending constitutional functions. There have been bloodless revolutions, but never bloodless sedition or civil war.

The decisive basis for it not being sedition lies in adherence to constitutional procedures. When the National Assembly requested the lifting of martial law in accordance with the Constitution, the fact that the President accepted the request and withdrew the military without suppressing it by force or dissolving the National Assembly demonstrates that the December 3 martial law operated within the constitutional system.

There has never been a case where a government that came to power through a popular vote committed sedition. By any global standard, the December 3 martial law cannot be considered sedition. While political criticism can be leveled against the "excessive exercise of presidential power" regarding the December 3 martial law, the legal conclusion is that it cannot be viewed as "criminal sedition" aimed at dismantling the constitutional order itself.

2. The Democratic Party of Korea's 'Cold Civil War'

   What the Democratic Party of Korea and the current administration are engaging in can be defined as a "cold civil war." Unlike physical sedition, it does not involve bloodshed, but it completely deprives the opposing camp of legislative, judicial, and administrative space to breathe, leading to the impeachment of a president elected by the people and the establishment of a new regime. They are systematically disarming the conservative camp through arbitrary laws and systems, coupled with unwavering unity.

▲Legislative Sedition through 'Legislative Annihilation Warfare': The Democratic Party, leveraging its absolute majority, is creating a framework to suppress conservative forces through bills such as the "Law on Punishment of Those Involved in Sedition" and "Abolition of the Prosecutor's Office," which resembles rule by law rather than the rule of law.

▲Administrative Sedition Aimed at Controlling Bureaucratic Organizations: The Democratic Party is carrying out extensive ideological vetting and personnel purges within the bureaucracy through the 'Government Innovation Total Task Force for Upholding the Constitution.' This appears to be a 'soul-swapping' operation to instill fear in public officials – that "cooperating with the conservative regime will inevitably lead to punishment" – and permanently reshape the bureaucracy into a group friendly to the Democratic Party.

▲Judicial Sedition: By designating the judiciary as an object of reform and pressuring it, they are creating a "tilted playing field" in the courts favorable to themselves and using it as a shield to defend President Lee Jae-myung's judicial risks. This is an aberration for the sake of one person's position, a situation rarely seen in the world.

Furthermore, the Democratic Party is carrying out an 'cognitive isolation operation' by stigmatizing the entire conservative camp as 'accomplices to sedition,' thereby stripping them of their moral citizenship. By defining conservatives not as constructive partners in governance but as 'enemies to be purged,' they appear to be intimidating conservative supporters and severing ties with moderates.

This 'cold civil war' seems to have a final goal beyond simply maintaining power: to render the conservative opposition party irrecoverably a permanent minority and to complete the 'regime change' by permanently establishing the Democratic Party as the sole mainstream force in South Korea.

3. The North Korean Regime is a Constitutional Sedition Force

   According to Article 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, North Korea is not a foreign country but an 'anti-state organization' illegally occupying our territory. Therefore, Kim Jong-un's declaration of the "hostile two-state theory" is the officialization of 'territorial usurpation' aimed at permanently seizing half of the territory of the Republic of Korea. Its continuous ballistic missile threats and cyberattacks are clear acts of 'criminal sedition' aimed at destroying the lives of the people and the constitutional order. This is not an international dispute to be negotiated, but an 'armed rebellion' that must be suppressed in the name of our Constitution.

However, the current political circles are solely focused on internal disputes regarding the emergency martial law of a year ago. While we are exhausting our national strength fighting against the 'fake sedition' within, the 'real sedition force' beyond the demilitarized zone is likely advancing its nuclear weapons and plotting acts of sedition using revolutionary organizations. True constitutional defense lies not in ending sedition, but in possessing overwhelming deterrence to crush the threat from North Korea, which is constantly attempting to usurp our territory.

There is no country in the world that equates emergency martial law with sedition. If the government and the ruling party become engrossed in 'sedition molli' (seditious accusation), they cannot avoid international isolation, capital will flee, and the economy, which relies on handouts internally and externally, will collapse. If the goal is not national ruin, then the 'nationally self-destructive sedition farce' must be halted. //

Guest Editorial Writer, Hankook Ilbo