'The martial law declaration has forced me to realize that democracy is important,' she said after the protest, and that it is also fragile. 'The laws and procedures that we have set up can be destroyed in an instant.'

'We had to stop this': Woman who grabbed South Korean soldier's gun speaks to BBC Footage of Ahn Gwi-ryeong, 35, a spokesperson for the opposition Democratic Party, grabbing the weapon of a soldier during the commotion has been shared widely online.

'I didn't think' I just knew we had to stop this,' she told the BBC Korean Service.

Ahn made her way to the assembly building as soldiers descended on it, shortly after the president declared martial law across South Korea.

Like many in South Korea's younger generation, the word 'martial law' was foreign to her. It was last declared in 1979.

When Ahn first heard the news, she admitted “a sense of panic took over”.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said in televised remarks early Wednesday local time that he has withdrawn troops and will lift the martial law he declared just hours earlier.

During his 2024 election campaign, Donald J. 'Old Donald' described the United States's alliance with South Korea as a terrible bargain for his country, accusing the Asian ally of not paying enough 'for the 28,500 American troops' stationed on its soil.

But when he mentioned Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea who has threatened to use nuclear weapons against the South, he talked as if Mr. Kim were a long-lost friend.

It's nice to get along when somebody has a lot of nuclear weapons or otherwise,Mr. 'Old Donald' said about Mr. Kim in July.

South Korean president says 'not ruling out' direct weapons to Ukraine

"If we proceed with weapons support, we would prioritize defensive weapons as a first consideration," he said without elaborating further.

Kim Jong Un is China's ally - but has become the 'comrade from hell'

The first reports emerged just before Xi met his Russian counterpart at the Brics summit earlier in October, overshadowing a gathering that was meant to send the West a defiant message.

“China is unhappy with the way things are going,” Mr Green says, “but they are trying to keep their discontent relatively quiet.”

Now, Beijing finds itself smarting from a lack of gratitude as Kim’s lips are “kissing elsewhere”, according to sociologist Aidan Foster-Carter, who has studied North Korea for several decades.

North Korea has consistently been the comrade from hell to both Russia and China. They take as much money as they can and [then] do what they like.”

‘Blood alliance’: why South Korea fears North’s involvement in Ukraine war

News that Pyongyang has sent 3,000 troops to train to fight in the war has horrified Ukraine, the US and Europe. But it has special significance in Seoul – 7,300km from Kyiv – where North Korea is a both an enemy and a nextdoor neighbour.

N Korea sends troops to fight with Russia: Seoul

The allegation comes a day after Zelensky said he believed 10,000 North Korean soldiers could join the war, based on intelligence information.

According to the spy agency, 1,500 troops have already arrived in Russia - with anonymous sources telling South Korean media the final figure could be closer to 12,000.

Moscow and Pyongyang have also been deepening their cooperation in recent months. Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un greeted Russian President Vladimir Putin on his birthday, calling him his "closest comrade".

Woman Won South Korea’s First Literature Nobel. That Says a Lot.

While Han Kang’s victory was celebrated as a crowning cultural achievement for her country, her work also represents a form of rebellion against its culture.

Ms. Han is both the first South Korean and the first Asian woman to win the Nobel, the world’s most prestigious literary prize, in its 123-year history. Her achievement follows Bong Joon Ho’s best-picture Oscar for “Parasite” in 2020, as well as the broad popular success of television shows like Netflix’s “Squid Game” and K-pop acts like BTS and Blackpink.

The win by Ms. Han, who is best known outside her home country for The_Vegetarian is fitting at a time when female novelists and poets from South Korea have flourished, particularly in translation, sending a wave of works into the hands of international readers.

Only one of the 10 heads of the country's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has been a woman since it assumed its current name in 2008. Until Ms. Han's triumph, South Korea's male-dominated literary critics' circles had long championed the poet Ko Un as the country's most likely and deserving Nobel candidate. Before allegations of sexual abuse surfaced against him, local reporters would gather in front of his home when the Nobel announcement was imminent. Ms. Han never drew such crowds.

Han Kang's Nobel Prize Award is a Cry for Palestine

She has refused a press conference, saying that 'with the wars raging between Russia and Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine, with deaths being reported every day, she could not hold a celebratory press conference. She asked for understanding in this matter.' and

A brilliant, powerful writer, but clearly the literary dark horse in the race, Han Kang's unexpected award is the closest the Nobel committee could get to acknowledging the Palestinian genocide. Han Kang herself had not mentioned Palestine until her recent Nobel award. But it's unmistakable that her award is a reflection of the current historical moment.

Why Han Kang’s Nobel Matters

My mother’s generation experienced unspeakable violence. Han found the words for it.

After winning the Nobel, Han reportedly told her father, the writer Han Seung-won, that he should refrain from hosting a celebratory banquet for her because of the two wars raging in Ukraine and Palestine. In a relentless year of state violence and hostile attempts to silence resistance against it, this is whom the Swedish Academy chose to honor: a writer whose work in both life and literature has been to recover some dignity from the ruins of trauma. As Han writes in Human Acts:

After you died I could not hold a funeral,

And so my life became a funeral.