Representative Roh Jong-myeon of the Democratic Party of Korea stated that one of the three phone calls requesting the dispatch of a liaison to the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) immediately after the declaration of martial law originated from the 'United States Army Psychological Operations Command.'
According to Representative Roh, a member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee, on the 13th, three phone calls related to the request for dispatching a liaison to the KCC were received during the emergency martial law situation, and one of them came from a number used by the Ministry of National Defense. The remaining two calls are presumed to be from numbers used within the Ministry of National Defense based on area codes and tones, Representative Roh said. He explained that the three numbers requesting the liaison from the KCC contained '02-748-xxxx'.
The United States Army Psychological Operations Command is an organization suspected of directly producing and disseminating leaflets aimed at North Korea in recent provocations. It is responsible for producing and supporting propaganda materials for psychological operations and tactical operations against North Korea.
It was also confirmed that the times of the phone calls requesting the dispatch of a liaison to the KCC office were around 1:15 a.m., 2:05 a.m., and 3:20 a.m. on the 4th. Representative Roh explained that, although a resolution to demand the lifting of emergency martial law was passed at 1:01 a.m. on the 4th, the request for liaison dispatch was made regardless.
Representative Roh noted, 'If the United States Army Psychological Operations Command, which is in charge of psychological operations against North Korea, requested the dispatch of a liaison, it signifies an intention to conduct a psychological operation aimed at the public to convey the necessity and legitimacy of the martial law.' He added, 'The origins of the other two numbers must also be revealed through an investigation.'
The KCC stated, 'The person in charge who received the calls at the time could not identify the origins of the two numbers,' and added, 'We called the respective contacts again to verify but did not receive a response.' They further reported that a briefing on the matter was provided to Kim Tae-gyu, acting chair of the KCC, at 10 a.m. that day.
Acting Chair Kim Tae-gyu said, 'There was a request for the dispatch of a liaison, but it was not fulfilled, and while monitoring the situation, the martial law was lifted.'