President Yoon Suk Yeol's sudden, fleeting invocation of martial law has sparked a wave of urgent calls from lawmakers to reform the martial law act, aimed at preventing presidential overreach and safeguarding the National Assembly’s ability to function even under a state of martial law.

A total of 11 proposed amendments to the Martial Law Act have been submitted after the Assembly was besieged and infiltrated by armed special forces during Yoon's late-night declaration of emergency martial law on Dec. 3. in an apparent move to obstruct the Assembly’s authority to rescind the martial law decree.

The amendment bills garner support ranging from a minimum of 10 opposition party lawmakers to as many as 27 from opposition parties, with some names appearing across amendments.

Several proposed amendments to the martial law act called for revising the process to ensure martial law is immediately terminated upon a National Assembly resolution, bypassing the need for State Council deliberation.

The Constitution mandates that if the Assembly, by a majority vote of its total membership, requests the termination of martial law, the president must comply. However, the current martial law act requires the president to seek Cabinet deliberation before lifting martial law.

"The provision requiring deliberation by the State Council to lift martial law has the potential to be abused, as it could be exploited to delay or nullify the lifting of martial law; therefore, supplementary measures are necessary to address this concern," read the amendment proposal. It was backed by 10 lawmakers, including Rep. Yoon Joon-byeong of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea.

"The act must explicitly stipulate that martial law loses its effect immediately upon the president's receipt of the resolution approved by the National Assembly where it requests the lifting of martial law, thereby reinforcing the Assembly's control to prevent the abuse of martial law."

Amendment bills have emphasized the urgent need to revise the Martial Law Act to require National Assembly preapproval for any declaration of martial law, except in wartime conditions, citing the overly broad conditions under which the president can declare martial law "in times of war, incidents, or other equivalent national emergencies."

"There are growing concerns that the criteria for declaring martial law is excessively vague, creating significant risks of arbitrary interpretation," read one proposed amendment, sponsored by 11 lawmakers, including Rep. Yun Ho-jung of the Democratic Party.

The bill also elucidated that martial law is an extraordinary constitutional measure invoked during severe emergencies when defending constitutional order through normal means is impossible. However, its temporary suspension of constitutionalism risks undermining constitutional principles and severely restricting citizens' fundamental rights.

"Therefore, it is customary in modern democratic constitutional states to establish regulatory mechanisms to minimize the risk of abuse or misuse of martial law," the bill read, citing France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom as countries that have established safeguards to prevent arbitrary interpretations or misuse of martial law authority by the President.

To curb the abuse of presidential authority, other amendment bills emphasized the need to include a provision requiring approval from Cabinet members before the president can issue a declaration of martial law.

Bills for proposed amendments underscored the importance of safeguarding the National Assembly's functions and barring armed forces from entering its premises, as it happened after Yoon declared martial law.

"Accordingly, we propose (a revision) to explicitly stipulate that neither the president nor the martial law commander can obstruct or suspend the functions of the National Assembly, thereby stably ensuring the Assembly’s ability to request the lifting of martial law," read the bill, co-sponsored by 15 lawmakers, including Rep. Jang Chul-min of the Democratic Party.

An amendment bill, cosponsored by 10 lawmakers, including Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the Democratic Party, proposes nullifying a martial law declaration if the required procedures for notifying the National Assembly and convening its session are not followed, particularly when the Assembly is out of session.