Bright, enthusiastic and determined, the teenager stood tall on the wide Yeouido Boulevard, facing the National Assembly. "The announcement of martial law [on December 3] made me angry. I never imagined that this would happen in South Korea. I fully support the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol," she said defiantly. The conservative president's removal was voted through on Saturday, December 14.

The long-haired girl dressed all in black came from Gimpo (north-west of Seoul) with three friends on December 13 – "for the first time because we had exams, which ended today" – to take part in the demonstration outside the National Assembly. She admitted she was afraid the night martial law was announced: "I told myself, 'I won't be able to go out anymore. My freedom will be gone.'"

Her friends, two of whom were accompanied by their parents and who, like everyone else interviewed, preferred to remain anonymous, nodded in agreement. "I was in the library revising for exams when the news broke. I wondered if the war had started. I wondered if the war had started. But in the end, no. There was nothing," said one, wearing a gray velvet jacket that seemed far too thin for the sub-zero temperatures under the weak winter sun.

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