He said it was necessary to protect the country from what he called communist forces.

Crowds have gathered outside the country's National Assembly in order to oppose the president's move.

Deputies inside the building have passed a resolution calling on the president to reverse the decision.

But the military says martial law will stay in place until lifted by the president.

Here is the president making that original announcement.

I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order.

I declare martial law to protect the freedom and happiness of our people, and to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order.

I declare martial law to protect the freedom and happiness of our people, and to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order.

I declare martial law to protect the freedom and happiness of our people, and to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and I don't see any restrictions on their activities yet, but we have to see also tomorrow what the next day will bring.

So, what are the communist forces the President says he's protecting the country from?

So, the President basically calls the opposition party, the leftist party, pro-North Korea and yeah, really also other domestic scandals and the claim that the opposition is communist and that they are North Korea sympathisers, that is what has been repeatedly stated but without giving any evidence.

Okay, so despite the President's declaration of martial law, the National Assembly, including lawmakers from the President's own party, in the last hour or so voted to lift this.

So, what happens next?

Yeah, this is totally unclear.

I mean, the military has said that, you know, the martial law will, at least for the time being, stay in power, but politically there has been a vote that it should be reverted.

To be honest, I don't see any possible way that this status could last because President Kim Jong-il has also faced harsh criticism from his own party, from the ruling party.

The head of the party called this decision to declare martial law wrong and he voted to stop this martial law with the help of the people and if you listen to those statements coming from the President's own party, I don't see there's any way that the President can keep up with this martial law, at least not for several more days, I would guess.

That's at least what I would say based on the things that I know.

Tell us more about the political reaction to this move, Fabian.

Yeah, I mean, the biggest criticism came from the opposition, of course.

They were basically calling this decision to declare martial law groundless.

They were also, I mean, there are increasing calls that the President should step down and, as I also said before, that criticism came also from the ruling party, so from the party that the President belongs to.

So, I would say this is really highly controversial and also many people inside the political establishment but also among the normal people, the average people cannot really understand the reasons that President Kim Jong-il gave for declaring this martial law.

It's quite an unpopular decision and caught us all by surprise.

And you hinted at an interesting background to this situation.

We have a lame-duck President who can't get his legislation passed, an opposition majority in Parliament.

And the President has also been hit by scandal.

Just fill us in.

Yeah, I mean, there were many scandals.

One scandal, for example, revolved around his wife.

There were corruption allegations.

I mean, in general, Jung Seok-yong became really a very unpopular President for, I mean, also economic reasons.

People really here think that life has become very expensive.

The real estate sector is not going well.

And also, especially, there's one more aspect to it, especially young women.

They dislike this President for being misogynist.

So, I mean, there's all kinds of criticism.

And the popularity was really, really low.

And there was a lot of pressure.

And I think probably that was also a thing that motivated him to declare this martial law, because at least in the last weeks, on Saturdays, we've seen already quite massive demonstrations by the opposition.

Now, those protests have not made international headlines.

But actually, you could see it build up.

I mean, within the population, there were a lot of tensions, a lot of dissatisfaction with the President.

And there were increasingly also the calls that this President should step down.

OK, Fabian, thank you for that.

Fabian Kretschmer reporting from Seoul.