Former President Yoon Suk-yeol appeared in court for the first time in four months since being rearrested in July, facing off with former Special Warfare Command Commander Kwak Jong-geun in the trial on charges of being the ringleader of insurrection. Yoon argued that deploying the military to the National Assembly was "to maintain order," but Kwak said, "I cannot accept that."
The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Agreement Division 25 (Presiding Judge Jee Kui-youn, Director General) held a continued hearing on the morning of the 30th in the case of charges of being the ringleader of insurrection and abuse of power and obstruction of another's rights. Kwak appeared as a witness at the hearing.
That day, Yoon directly asked Kwak, "Wasn't the securing of the National Assembly done to maintain order?" In response, Kwak said, "I cannot accept the claim of maintaining order," adding, "I never heard the terms maintaining order or protecting citizens from superiors during the martial law period."
Kwak testified, "(Yoon) instructed that since the quorum for a resolution (to lift martial law) did not yet seem to be met, break down the doors of the National Assembly if necessary, go inside, and drag everyone out." Earlier, during Yoon's impeachment trial, Kwak also appeared as a witness and gave the same testimony.
Yoon also asked Kwak, "You said you received a hint from the Minister (former Ministry of National Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun) that emergency martial law could be declared in early December (last year) or earlier. Did you ever ask the Minister what scale of troops would be deployed under martial law and what kind of martial law it would be?"
Kwak replied, "To be honest, that is something I want to ask back to (Yoon) as well," adding, "I was also thinking, 'Is there any frontline situation that would warrant declaring emergency martial law? Surely not,' and then emergency martial law suddenly occurred." He then said, "Why did you create such a situation?"
The court set the next hearing date for Nov. 17. Regarding this, Yoon said about the future schedule, "I will come to court as long as my strength allows." After being rearrested on July 10, Yoon failed to appear in court for the insurrection trial 16 times in a row before appearing that day.