'Seoul's Winter,' the sequel to 'Seoul's Spring'... A flood of 'memes' amid martial law

What is this about?

I can't even laugh;;;;

People are saying whether this is really a sequel to <Spring in Seoul>...

Some people are asking if this is a movie..

What do the children who wake up in the morning and watch the news see in the current state of Korea?

Phew...

Really, even these kinds of memes are popping up...

Yesterday and today, it feels like a dream or real life...

The restless and chaotic times continue...

 

On the 4th, when the emergency martial law declared by President Yoon Seok-yeol was lifted, a flood of 'memes' flooded online, leaving people unable to laugh or cry.

On the 4th, the real-time trends on X (formerly Twitter) include keywords related to the declaration of martial law, such as 'Crazy XX', 'Martial Law', and 'Gun Theft'. Real-time trends indicate which topics or hashtags users are talking about the most at the moment.

Many of these were memes comparing the current martial law to the martial law imposed by the New Military Regime 44 years ago under the 5.17 coup. One netizen superimposed President Yoon's face onto the protagonist Jeon Du-kwang (played by Hwang Jung-min) in the film "Spring of Seoul," which is set during the New Military Regime's martial law, and titled it "Winter of Seoul." As of 2 p.m., this parody post received over 7,000 likes. Another netizen sarcastically commented, "'Spring of Seoul' sequel, 'Winter of Seoul.'"

Another self-deprecating post that became a hot topic online was, "I was joking around about Trump winning in the US, but in my country, martial law has been declared," and "From now on, I won't dine with anyone who questions the plausibility of alternative history works (fiction or movies based on historical events or figures)." This indicates that such unbelievable events have actually happened in reality.

Memes related to this have also rapidly emerged overseas. Synthetic images quickly spread of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was suspected of planning or attempting a coup d'état, former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, and Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Russian Wagner Group, telling President Yoon to "join."

 

A satirical cartoon titled "Literally 1948" was posted on Reddit, the largest online community in the United States. In the cartoon, a woman sitting next to a calendar marked November 1948 looks at her cellphone and says, "Martial law has been declared in Korea, Israel is fighting the Arabs, and the person everyone thought would lose has become the President of the United States." It alludes to the reality that the political turmoil of 1948 and the current situation seem to mirror each other.

 

<Source: Korea Economic Daily>