For many younger South Koreans, President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law late Tuesday night was their first exposure to a kind of turbulence that older generations remember all too well.

       Since South Korea was founded in 1948, a number of presidents have declared states of military emergency. The most recent — and the most notorious, perhaps — came after the 1979 assassination of President Park Chung-hee, a former general who had occasionally used martial law himself to crack down on political protests and opposition since seizing power in 1961.

       Soon after Mr. Park was killed, a general, Chun Doo-hwan, staged his own coup. In May 1980, he declared martial law, banning all political activities, closing schools and arresting dissidents.

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