South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared emergency martial law, saying the step was necessary to protect the country from “communist forces” amid parliamentary wrangling over a budget bill.

“To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements… I hereby declare emergency martial law,” Yoon said in a live televised address to the nation.

“With no regard for the livelihoods of the people, the opposition party has paralysed governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice,” he added.

The surprise move comes as Yoon’s People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party continue to bicker over next year’s budget bill. Opposition MPs last week approved a significantly downsized budget plan through a parliamentary committee.

“Our National Assembly has become a haven for criminals, a den of legislative dictatorship that seeks to paralyse the judicial and administrative systems and overturn our liberal democratic order,” Yoon said.

He accused opposition lawmakers of cutting “all key budgets essential to the nation’s core functions, such as combatting drug crimes and maintaining public security… turning the country into a drug haven and a state of public safety chaos.”

Yoon went on to label the opposition, which holds a majority in the 300-member parliament, as “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime” and called his decision “inevitable”.

“I will restore the country to normalcy by getting rid of anti-state forces as soon as possible.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

‘Rockstar’-fame actor Nargis Fakhri has not been in touch with her sister Aliya Fakhri, who has been arrested on charges of murdering her former boyfriend and his friend in New York, for more than 20 years, sources said on Wednesday.

Nargis Fakhri, who is elder to Aliya Fakhri, is yet to make any official statement on the case. Their mother has denied the charges against her daughter, saying, “I don’t think she would be killing someone. She was a person who was caring for everybody. She tried to help everybody,” according to multiple news outlets.

The alleged double murders took place in Queens, New York, on Monday.

According to the Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, Aliya Fakhri set a two-storey garage on Monday, when her former boyfriend Edward Jacobs (35) and his friend, Anastasia Ettienne, were asleep.

Aliya Fakhri arrived at the garage and yelled “you’re all going to die today“, before setting the building on fire. Ettienne, who was alerted by the fire, ran downstairs to check before going back up to wake up Jacobs. By this time, the fire had covered the entire building and the two couldn’t escape. They died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries.

Meanwhile, a witness came out hearing Aliya Fakhri’s voice and found that the building was set on fire, Ms Katz said.

Aliya Fakhri has been charged with four counts of murder in the first degree and four counts of murder in the second degree. She has also been accused of arson by a grand jury. She faces a maximum of life in prison if convicted of the top charge, the attorney said.

The accused is in police custody and is scheduled to appear before the court on December 9.

“As alleged in this indictment, this defendant maliciously ended the lives of two people by setting a fire that trapped a man and woman in a raging inferno. The victims tragically died from smoke inhalation and thermal injuries,” Ms Katz said.

Jacobs had broken up with Aliya Fakhri about a year ago but she couldn’t take the rejection, his mother Janet told the New York Post. She said her son was a plumber and was working on a project to convert the garage into an apartment.

The witness in the case claimed Aliya Fakhri and Mr Jacobs were in an “abusive relationship”, and that the woman had previously threatened to burn her former partner’s house.

The move – invoking temporary military rule – has been roundly condemned by opponents and some within his own party. 

​The move – invoking temporary military rule – has been roundly condemned by opponents and some within his own party.