Impeached and suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol authorized the military to fire their weapons if needed to enter South Korean National Assembly during his failed bid to impose martial law, a prosecutors’ report seen by Agence France-Presse yesterday showed.
The 10-page summary from former South Korean minister of defense Kim Yong-hyun’s prosecution indictment report, which was provided to the media, also says Yoon vowed on Dec. 3 to declare martial law three times if necessary.
Yoon, who was this month stripped of his duties by the National Assembly, is under investigation for his short-lived attempt to scrap civilian rule, which plunged the country into political turmoil and led to his impeachment.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Yoon’s lawyer, Yoon Kab-keun dismissed the prosecutors’ report, saying that it was “a one-sided account that neither corresponds to objective circumstances nor common sense.”
As lawmakers rushed to the National Assembly on Dec. 3 to vote down Yoon’s martial law declaration, heavily armed troops stormed the building, scaling fences, smashing windows and landing by helicopter.
According to the prosecution indictment report, Yoon told the chief of the Capital Defense Command, Lee Jin-woo, that military forces could shoot if necessary to enter the National Assembly.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Have you still not got in? What are you doing? Break down the door and drag them out, even if it means shooting,” Yoon told Lee, according to the report.
Yoon also allegedly told the head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, General Kwak Jong-keun, to “quickly get inside” the National Assembly as the quorum for the martial law declaration to be lifted had not been met.
“So quickly get inside the National Assembly and bring out the people inside the chamber, and break down the doors with an axe if necessary and drag everyone out,” the report quotes Yoon as saying at the time.
After lawmakers rushed inside and voted 190-0 to nullify Yoon’s declaration in the early hours of Dec. 4, the report says Yoon told Lee: “Even if it’s lifted, I can declare martial law a second or third time, so just keep going.”
The report also included screenshots of senior defense officials’ messages from the day of the martial law declaration.
It said there was evidence that Yoon had been discussing declaring martial law with senior military officials as early as March. The declaration followed a budget tussle between Yoon’s party and the opposition.
Kim was arrested over his role in the failed martial law bid.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court held its first preliminary hearing on the validity of Yoon’s impeachment on Friday, and is also to decide the fate of Yoon’s replacement, Han Duck-soo, who was impeached on Friday.
Tens of thousands of Yoon supporters and opponents held rival mass rallies in Seoul yesterday.
An anti-Yoon crowd held signs such as: “A new leader for the new year” and “Arrest Yoon Suk-yeol,” with many singing along to K-pop songs and John Lennon’s Imagine.
“I felt so relieved when Han was impeached, he was also part of the insurrection,” Kwak Min-jeong, 25, said.
Holding a glow stick, Kwak added that she would keep protesting until “democracy was achieved.”
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