In spite of himself, Kim Ou-joon has played a central role in the vaudeville of martial law in South Korea. A well-known and popular political commentator and head of News Factory, a media group with several YouTube channels and the "Flower" polling institute, Kim was targeted by the military once martial law was declared on the evening of December 3. "I was at home on the evening of martial law. As soon as I heard the news. I went into hiding," he explained to Le Monde, from the location where he remained hiding for two days. Known for his mussed-up hair, boldness, and incessant battles against conservative leaders like Lee Myung-bak (2008-2013), Park Geun-hye (2013-2017) and now Yoon Suk Yeol, Kim has long been a vocal opponent of corruption and South Korea's elites.

It was a good thing he hid. Shortly after he left, the military stationed themselves in front of his house. Meanwhile, a score of soldiers set up in front of the News Factory offices. "It took me a while to figure out why. But Yoon's plan was to make it look like the April parliamentary elections had been fraudulent, arrest the opposition MPs and hold elections to get a National Assembly to do his bidding. That's why he sent the military there to prevent MPs from meeting to vote to lift martial law, as well as to the Election Commission and my offices. He wanted to arrest Lee Jae-myung, leader of the opposition Democratic Party [DP], but also Han Dong-hoon, leader of his party, the People's Power Party."

However, explained Kim, "my polling firm had predicted the tidal wave in favor of the Democratic Party for the April election. It was easy to accuse me of having engineered the fraud, by setting up a scenario saying that I was taking orders from North Korea."

In fact, Kwak Jong-geun, the commander of the special forces mobilized during the night, confirmed on December 6: "I received orders to deploy the elite 707 unit to the National Assembly, the Election Commission and News Factory." The soldiers sent to Kim's offices were apparently ordered to seize his institute's servers.

The president justified martial law on the grounds of the need to protect South Korea "from the threats of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the pro-North Korean anti-state forces who are blatantly destroying the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect our free constitutional order." Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, considered the mastermind of the martial law project and who has now resigned, told reporters on December 4: "There was fraud in the April election."

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