In the uncertain hours early Wednesday, many recalled the nation’s last martial law, which came after a coup installed a military dictator and triggered a deadly uprising.

Last year, a political blockbuster gripped South Korea with a dramatization of a painful memory from its authoritarian past, when the assassination of President Park Chung-hee in 1979 led to a military coup and plunged the country into the iron grip of martial law.

President Yoon Suk Yeol announced the extraordinary move amid a bitter fight with the political opposition, and protesters clashed with police outside the assembly.

Six South Korean opposition parties later submitted a bill to parliament to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, with voting set for Friday or Saturday.

South Korea’s National Assembly voted to lift an emergency declaration of martial law just hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol announced it on Tuesday, in a swift rebuke of the president’s response to the political deadlock that has hobbled his tenure.

It may seem that the wild predawn scenes in Seoul, with hundreds of armed troops and frantic lawmakers storming South Korea's parliament building after the president suddenly declared martial law, cam

Though martial law isn't well defined in U.S. law, it has been imposed at the state and federal level to respond to emergencies.

President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea declared emergency martial law on Tuesday, accusing the opposition of plotting “insurgency” and “trying to overthrow the free democracy.” It was the first time a South Korean president had declared martial law since the military dictatorship ended in the country in the late 1980s.

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol prompted a night of fear and confusion by issuing a sudden declaration of martial law before lifting it in the early hours