Former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yel is facing more criminal charges as prosecutors allege that he flew drones over North Korea in a deliberate bid to stoke tensions and justify his plans to declare martial law.
Yoon set off the most serious political crisis in South Korea’s recent history when he imposed martial law on Dec. last year and sent troops to surround the National Assembly. He was later impeached and removed from office, and is in jail standing trial on charges including masterminding a rebellion.
His successor, President Lee Jae-myung, approved legislation that launched independent investigations into Yoon’s martial law stunt and other criminal allegations involving his wife and administration.
Yoon and two of his top defense officials yesterday were charged with benefitting the enemy and committing abuse of power over their alleged drone flights, which happened about two months before the declaration of martial law, a special investigation team said.
North Korea accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang, the North’s capital, to drop propaganda leaflets three times in October last year. Yoon’s defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, initially made a vague denial, but South Korea’s military later switched to saying it could not confirm whether the North’s claim was true.
Any public confirmation of South Korean reconnaissance activities inside North Korea is highly unusual.
Tensions rose sharply at the time, with North Korea threatening to respond with force, but neither side took any major action and tensions gradually subsided.
When Yoon announced martial law, he briefly cited “threats from North Korean communist forces,” but focused on his fights with the liberal-controlled parliament that obstructed his agenda, impeached top officials and slashed his government’s budget bill.
Park Ji-young, a senior investigator working for independent counsel Cho Eun-suk, told a briefing yesterday that her team had indicted Yoon, Kim and Yeo In-hyung, ex-commander of the military’s counterintelligence agency, over the alleged drone flying.
She said the trio “undermined the military interests of the Republic of Korea by increasing the danger of a South-North armed conflict with the purpose of setting up an environment for declaring emergency martial law,” Park said.
There were no immediate public responses from Yoon, Kim or Yeo, but in July, Yoon’s defense team said Yoon had maintained he was not informed of the drone flights.
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