In the 6-hour mayhem of South Korea's martial law, a woman's act of resistance was a defining moment

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In the groundswell of fury and defiance that erupted among South Koreans after their president declared martial law, curtailing the country’s hard-won freedoms, it was perhaps the iconic moment.

As parliamentarians scrambled to get inside the National Assembly building to reverse the emergency measure, a woman in a leather coat confronted one of the soldiers who was trying to stop the lawmakers, grabbed his automatic rifle and tried to tug it away while yelling “Aren’t you ashamed?”

As the soldier backed away, he raised the rifle’s barrel toward the woman. She pressed on, grabbing it as it was pointed at her chest, still yelling, before he gave up, turned and walked away.

Video of the encounter quickly went viral and became a social media rallying cry that helped fuel the six-hour outburst of protest before President Yoon Suk Yeol was forced to rescind the martial law order early Wednesday morning.

https://apnews.com/article/an-gwiryeong-south-korea-martial-law-defiance-ee55278bedab3d6b49b061ac1a2399b2