The special counsel team led by Cho Eun-suk (Judicial Research and Training Institute class 19), which has been investigating the insurrection and foreign collusion cases related to the Dec. 3 martial law emergency, will announce the final results of its 180-day probe on the 15th.
According to legal sources on the 14th, the special counsel investigating the insurrection case indicted a total of 24 people, including former President Yoon Suk-yeol, the central figure in the martial law emergency, after launching the investigation on June 18. Including cases handled by military prosecutors in collaboration with the special counsel, the total is 27.
In total, 11 arrest warrants were sought, including for additional indictments, and five—half—were issued.
Cho, the special counsel and a former elite prosecutor in special investigations, said in a media notice on June 13, the day after being named, "I will carry out the duties of special counsel solely according to the logic of the investigation, examining everything carefully with the mindset of drafting annals."
On the 18th of the same month, the team began the probe in earnest by additionally indicting former Minister of the Ministry of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun and seeking an additional arrest warrant.
Immediately after indicting the former Minister, the special counsel team focused on investigating the former president, Yoon. The team then arrested Yoon on July 10, three weeks after the investigation began. It was 124 days after Yoon had been released by a court decision canceling his detention.
Following former President Yoon, the special counsel team also applied the charge of engaging in key duties related to insurrection to former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min and indicted him under arrest, but it did not secure custody of other Cabinet members.
As arrest warrants for former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Minister of Justice Park Sung-jae were denied, followed by warrants for People Power Party lawmaker Choo Kyung-ho and former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, criticism emerged that the investigation was overreaching.
Since August, the only person taken into custody was former National Intelligence Service Director Cho Tae-yong, who was indicted under arrest not for insurrection but for alleged violations of the National Intelligence Service Act and other charges.
In the investigation into foreign collusion charges, prosecutors could not apply the charge of soliciting foreign forces, which requires proving collusion with North Korea, but they indicted a former president for the first time on the general enemy-benefiting charge.
In the indictment, the special counsel team stated that former President Yoon, former Minister Kim, and others provoked North Korea—which is in an armistice with Korea—to heighten military tensions in order to create grounds for declaring martial law.
The special counsel team also concluded that former President Yoon began envisioning martial law as early as November 2022, just six months after taking office, by mentioning "emergency prerogatives." This predates the period around March to April 2024 when he was revealed to have mentioned emergency prerogatives.
In addition, it was found that the legal risk facing former President Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon-hee, was one of the motives for declaring the martial law emergency.
During the investigation, the special counsel team detected indications that the former presidential couple directly contacted former Minister Park to discuss their legal risk, including the luxury bag acceptance and the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation allegation, as well as alleged pressure on the probe into a Marine's line-of-duty death.
On the 15th, Cho, the special counsel, is set to personally announce the results of the 180-day investigation. It will be Cho's first public appearance since being named special counsel.