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1. Introduction
In July 2018, a South Korean lawmaker revealed a document to the media on a plan of martial law. The document was created by the Defense Security Command (DSC) in March 2017, which was around the time when people were waiting for the decision of the Constitutional Court of South Korea on the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye following the National Assembly's impeachment decision, driven by large public protests during winter of 2016. The DSC planned to declare a state of emergency using military force if the court rejected the motion to impeach and there were large protests in response. The plan was specific. Ignoring the normal command system, the DSC planned to take over Seoul including the administration, National Assembly, and media using the Mechanized Infantry Division of the Army and the Airborne-Special Forces Brigade stationed in and near Seoul. The document contained a de facto plan for a coup d'etat, and the public was shocked when it became public because it could have been another massacre of civilians by the military, which had occurred in Gwangju, a southwestern city in South Korea, in May 1980.
In addition to this incident, the DSC and Cyber Command continued to appear in the press throughout 2018 for other crimes. They actively interfered with domestic politics by supporting pro-government organizations, conducted surveillance on those who were critical of the government and trade union members, and manipulated online public opinion. Those who were involved were punished, and the former DSC commander, the suspected leader of the plan, fled to the USA. In July 2018, the Vice Minister of National Defense appeared before the National Assembly and apologized for the military's political interference, promising to ensure that it does not happen again in the history of the South Korean military (Kyunghyang, 2018: 7. 5; KBS News, 2018a: 2. 15, 2018b: 7. 30; MBC Straight, 2018: 9. 2).
A series of revelations related to armed forces over the past few years in South Korea highlighted a problem in Korean democracy: the use of the military in domestic politics for the political interests of the ruling power. Most Koreans thought that democratic control of armed forces was finalized as the Kim Young-sam administration took office in 1993. The thought...