The special counsel team led by Cho Eun-seok, which is investigating insurrection and treason allegations related to the Dec. 3 martial law, notified former President Yoon Suk-yeol to appear for questioning on the 24th.
On the 20th, the special counsel team said, "We notified the former president to appear on the morning of the 24th as a suspect."
The special counsel team appears set to question the former president over treason allegations, including the "Pyongyang drone deployment suspicion."
The special counsel team suspects that the former president, in order to create justification for declaring martial law, ordered around October last year operations such as deploying drones over Pyongyang to the Drone Operations Command to provoke North Korea.
It has also come to light that around June last year, during the operational planning phase, Kim Yong-hyun, then head of the Presidential Security Service, contacted numerous key military officials via secure phones to ask about the drone operation.
The special counsel team has accelerated the probe by repeatedly summoning for questioning key figures in the then-operational chain of command, including Drone Operations Commander Kim Yong-dae, Joint Chiefs of Staff Operations Directorate Chief Lee Seung-oh, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Kim Myoung-soo.
This is the first time the special counsel team has questioned the former president in connection with treason charges. The former president has been detained at Seoul Detention Center since a detention warrant requested by the insurrection special counsel team was issued on Jul. 10. Treason-related charges were not included in that warrant.
The former president's side said the special counsel's summons notice was made unilaterally without considering the schedule, and that once they receive a formal notice, they will consider whether he will appear.
The former president's side said, "A summons for questioning must be received by a lawful and standard postal summons notice," adding, "After receiving the notice, we will consider whether to comply with the questioning." They added, "On the 25th, the day after the summons date, there is a trial in the insurrection ringleader case, and on the 26th, the first hearing in new cases such as obstruction of special official duties, so in a situation where the attorneys are being投入 into trials and preparing urgently, issuing a unilateral summons notice without any discussion to an attorney who has not been retained is extremely unfair."
Since being re-detained by the special counsel in Jul., the former president has refused to attend his trials and the special counsel's appearances, citing health issues.