On the 20th, the special prosecutor team led by Cho Eun-seok, investigating the internal disturbance and foreign exchange incident related to the '12·3 emergency martial law', initiated the process to secure New Recruit Kim Yong-dae, the commander of the drone operation.
The internal disturbance special prosecutor team stated in a press release that "at 2 p.m., we requested an arrest warrant for Commander Kim," and noted, "There are reasons to secure New Recruit, and we requested the warrant based on verified criminal facts.
Earlier, the internal disturbance special prosecutor team was reported to have urgently arrested Commander Kim on the evening of the 18th due to concerns of escape and evidence destruction. The team had previously questioned Commander Kim for about 13 hours on the 17th, as he was a suspect in crimes such as general treason, forgery of official documents, and abuse of authority.
The special prosecutor team suspects that former President Yoon Suk-yeol intended to create a justification for declaring emergency martial law by directing the drone company to send unmanned aerial vehicles to North Korea last October, bypassing the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in order to provoke attacks against the South. To this end, they conducted searches at 24 military-related locations, including the drone operation command, over two days starting on the 14th.
During his previous appearance for questioning, Commander Kim said, "Even now, I think there is absolutely no link between the emergency martial law and our operation."