President Yoon Suk-yeol said, "I instructed former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun to send military forces to the National Election Commission."
On the 4th, during the fifth hearing of his impeachment case held at the Constitutional Court, President Yoon noted this while obtaining the right to speak during the testimony of former counterintelligence commander Yeon Hyun-sook, which was requested by the National Assembly side.
After the representatives of the National Assembly and President Yoon's side conducted the testimony of the former commander, when the constitutional justices asked her about the background of deploying forces to the Election Commission, President Yoon requested, "May I take a moment to speak?"
President Yoon said, "What I said to send forces to the Election Commission was communicated to former Minister Kim Yong-hyun." He added, "Since I was at the prosecution, I thought there could be a problem because the ballots were not logically acceptable when opened."
He continued, "In October 2023, I received reports four times from the National Intelligence Service about the Election Commission's computer system, and it was really lacking and poor." He also stated, "According to the reports, only 5% of the equipment was shown."
President Yoon said, "When I spoke about martial law to Minister Kim Yong-hyun on November 29 or 30 last year, I understood that the martial law command, which operates under the authority of the Minister of Defense, oversees administrative and judicial matters, so it was not a concept of criminal investigation; rather, the martial law troops entered to screen how the Election Commission system operates."