Background: In late 2024, South Korea, a high-income democracy, experienced the unprecedented concurrence of a nationwide physicians' strike and a presidential declaration of martial law. This dual crisis tested both the country's health system capacity and its constitutional resilience. Tactical Emergency Medical Support (TEMS) and Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) are frameworks for delivering medical care in high-threat situations; their role in such overlapping civilian and constitutional crises has not been previously evaluated.

Methods: We analyzed the South Korean medical strike and martial law event as a case study of simultaneous health system and governance emergencies. Data were drawn from official records, reputable media reports, and medical association communications. We examined healthcare performance indicators (service disruptions, emergency care load) and the sequence of government measures. We specifically evaluated whether tactical medicine principles (TEMS/TECC) were integrated into the crisis response and reviewed the constitutional mechanisms that ultimately constrained the executive's martial law attempt.