What follows is a hand-restored chronology of the night of 3 December 2024, drawn from the public record of the National Assembly proceedings, the broadcast minutes of the State Council, and the press pool transcripts that survived the broadcast freeze. Times are local Korea Standard Time.
¹ Sources catalogued in Sheaf 06.
The text below is the operative section of Proclamation of Emergency Martial Law, No. 1, as posted at 22:35 on the evening of 3 December 2024. Strategic redactions remain. The unredacted phrasing is preserved so the constitutional articles invoked, and overridden, are legible to the reading-room visitor. Hover or focus a redaction to lift the bar and read what was withheld.
Pursuant to Article 77 of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, and in view of a circumstance described herein, emergency martial law is declared throughout the territory of the Republic, effective immediately upon issuance.
Article I. All activities of the bodies enumerated are hereby suspended. The constitutional ground shall be the operative authority.
Article II. All press and broadcast media shall be subject to the procedure set out in paragraph 4. Publications, transmissions, and online communications failing this procedure shall be suspended.
Article III. Strikes, work stoppages, and gatherings on the schedules listed grounds are prohibited. Personnel of the named services who have left their posts shall return within forty-eight hours.
Article IV. Violators of this proclamation may be subjected to the measures prescribed by law. The provisions of the standing code shall be set aside to the extent provided herein.
— Issued under seal. Citizens of good faith are addressed in the customary terms. A constitutional check, however, remains.
² Restored from the public record of the State Council and contemporaneous broadcast transcripts. See Sheaf 06.
At 01:01 on 4 December 2024, with army units still arrayed outside the perimeter of the National Assembly, the plenary chamber called the roll on the Resolution Demanding the Lifting of Martial Law. The result is given below as a tally-sheet, reproduced from the floor clerk's hand-pencil draft.
The resolution carried under Article 77, Section 5 of the Constitution, by which the National Assembly may demand the lifting of martial law by an absolute majority; the constitutional duty that follows is set out in the same section.
³ Source: National Assembly Roll-Call Record, 22nd Assembly, 418th Session, Plenary 1.
In the eleven days following the rescission, a citation chain assembled itself in the chamber: a censure, a withdrawn first impeachment motion, a successful second motion, and a referral to the Constitutional Court. The chain is reproduced below in the form an archivist would file it — each link a citation, each citation a hand on the balance.
⁴ Citations in the form: Assembly · Session · Plenary · Date · Time. Court referrals follow the Hun-Na docket.
Twelve constitutional and procedural terms, presented as a paper-card index. The cards are filed in the order an archivist would expect to consult them when reading the preceding sheaves. Definitions are restated from the Constitution of the Republic of Korea and the National Assembly Act; idiomatic phrasing is the archivist's.
The constitutional ground of martial law in the Republic of Korea. Its five sections enumerate the conditions, types (extraordinary & precautionary), permissible restrictions, and — crucially — the legislative check at Section 5.
The pivot of the December events: "When the National Assembly demands the lifting of martial law by a majority vote of the members, the President shall comply without delay."
The more severe of the two species, available only in time of war or comparable emergency, permitting suspension of warrant requirements and prior-review of speech and press.
A majority of the seated members of the National Assembly (currently 300). Procedural majorities under Article 77 §5 are computed against the full body, not the quorum present.
A vote in which each member's name is read aloud and the vote individually recorded. Used here so that no part of the chamber's response could be later disputed.
A two-stage instrument: a motion of two-thirds of the Assembly suspends the official's powers; a six-justice majority of the Constitutional Court removes the office. Article 65 & 113.
The prefix used by the Constitutional Court for impeachment cases. The 2024 referral is 2024-Hun-Na-8, the eighth such case in the Court's history.
When presidential powers are suspended or vacated, succession proceeds first to the Prime Minister, then to designated cabinet members, by Article 71.
The administrative practice of requiring approval before publication or transmission. Permitted only under extraordinary martial law and only to the extent necessary; not a general censorship power.
The presidential office's press hall, from which the 22:23 declaration was broadcast. The hall's location is itself a procedural matter for the State Council record.
The cabinet body whose deliberation, recorded in the minutes, is constitutionally required before a martial-law declaration. The 2024 minutes' completeness has been the subject of a continuing inquiry.
The Seoul islet on which the National Assembly building stands. The fence and stairs by which lawmakers entered the chamber that night are part of the documentary record of the session.
⁵ Each card filed in archivist's order; cross-references indicated in italics.
Footnote markers in the preceding sheaves resolve here. Entries are filed in citation order. The folder is closed at the end of this page; visitors are invited to return it to the stacks at their leisure.