Six days have passed since South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on December 3, and various memes satirizing the President have become a trending topic.
Immediately following the declaration of martial law, numerous posts mocking and ridiculing the President appeared on online communities and social media platforms.
One widely shared meme features a photo of Yoon aboard his official aircraft during an overseas trip with First Lady Kim Keon Hee. The meme includes the question, “What is the most extreme thing you’ve done for love?” with the answer “Martial law.” The background music for this post features singer Roy Kim’s song “If You Ask Me What Love Is.”
Another satirical post uses a photo from last October showing Yoon meeting with People Power Party leader Han Dong Hoon and Presidential Chief of Staff Jeong Jin Seok at the Presidential Office in Yongsan. The image is captioned, “What did I declare after round two last night?” A past photo of Yoon at a drinking party was also edited with the caption, “What? Did I declare martial law?”
The satirical memes didn’t stop there. The poster of the film Spring in Seoul(12.12: The Day), which depicts the December 12 military coup, was altered to include Yoon’s face superimposed over former President Chun Doo Hwan’s. The movie title was humorously changed to “Drunken in Seoul,” a tagline was added: “December 3, 2024: The Three Hours That Were Kept Hidden.”
Photos featuring former President Park Geun Hye were also widely circulated. In one image of Yoon sitting across from former President Park, a caption is added to make her say, “I only thought about declaring martial law.” Another meme features Park pointing somewhere with the caption, “That’s Seoul Detention Center.”
Additionally, a photo of Kim Eun Hye, then Senior Secretary for Public Communications, during the 2022 Biden or Blowing It controversy, was edited to include the caption, “Please listen carefully once again: He said partial law, not martial law.”
Regarding these developments, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency commented, “The entire storyline feels like a live-action version of the film ‘12.12: The Day‘.” It added, “Do not think that declaring oneself the enemy of the world for the woman you love is something that exists only in movies or novels.”