The special counsel investigating the insurrection case (Special Counsel Cho Eun-suk), which has investigated the insurrection and treason cases related to the Dec. 3 martial law crisis, said former President Yoon Suk-yeol had been preparing for martial law since before Oct. 2023. The team concluded the purpose of martial law was the monopoly and maintenance of power.
Special Counsel Cho Eun-suk announced the final investigation results at 10 a.m. on the 15th at the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, after completing a 180-day probe. The special counsel team began its investigation on June 18 and referred a total of 24 people to trial, including former President Yoon, former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok, former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, and People Power Party lawmaker Choo Kyung-ho.
Cho said, "The investigation found that Yoon Suk-yeol and others prepared for martial law before Oct. 2023," adding, "We confirmed that they declared martial law with the purpose of monopolizing and maintaining power by using the military to forcibly suspend political activities and the functions of the National Assembly, seizing legislative and judicial powers through an emergency legislative body to replace the National Assembly, and then eliminating opposition forces."
He added, "To create a pretext to declare martial law, they attempted to induce a North Korean armed provocation through abnormal military operations, but failed because North Korea did not respond militarily," and said, "Accordingly, Yoon Suk-yeol, Kim Yong-hyun, Noh Sang-won, and Yeo In-hyung labeled political activities taking place in the National Assembly as 'anti-state acts' and 'anti-state forces' plotting an insurrection and declared martial law."
The special counsel team also took issue with the former president moving the presidential office from the Blue House to the old Ministry of National Defense building from his first day in office, and transferring the presidential residence to Hannam-dong. "With the residences of key military command, including the Minister of National Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, located within close proximity to the president and the chief of the Presidential Security Service, conditions were created for close alignment between the president and the military," it said.
Cho said, "We confirmed that long before the 22nd general election in April 2024, Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Yong-hyun, and then Kim with Noh Sang-won (former commander of the Defense Intelligence Command) and Yeo In-hyung (former commander of the Defense Counterintelligence Command), sequentially conspired and prepared for martial law." The special counsel team concluded that former Army Chief of Staff Park An-su was assigned as they had discussed. Park, who was appointed martial law commander, issued a proclamation.
Cho said, "After Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Yong-hyun set the timing for martial law to be after the general election, they continued discussing how to carry it out regardless of the election results," adding, "From around March 2024, through dinners at a safe house and the residence, they conveyed to corps commanders that the military needed to step in and shared the perception of the need for martial law."
The corps commanders who met in this way included former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung, former Capital Defense Command chief Lee Jin-woo, and former Special Warfare Command chief Kwak Jong-geun. The special counsel team viewed that the former president and others framed the political situation at the time as a "national crisis caused by pro-North leftists."
They also concluded there were specific remarks. Cho said, "In July 2024, after attending the NATO summit and stopping in Hawaii, Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Yong-hyun told Kang Ho-pil, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who accompanied them, 'Han Dong-hoon is a communist. Shouldn't the military take part?' expressing hostility toward Han Dong-hoon and the need for martial law."
Then-Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik, who received the report from former JCS Vice Chairman Kang Ho-pil, strongly conveyed his opposition to martial law to then-Presidential Security Service chief Kim Yong-hyun. The special counsel team concluded that the former president then replaced the defense minister with former Minister Kim Yong-hyun.
Cho said, "We can confirm that Yoon Suk-yeol, Kim Yong-hyun, and Yeo In-hyung carried out various abnormal military operations from Oct. 2024 to induce a North Korean armed provocation as a pretext for declaring martial law."
However, the Joint Chiefs of Staff showed a passive attitude, and North Korea did not respond with force due to deployments related to the war in Ukraine, so they failed to secure a pretext to declare martial law.
Cho said, "Yoon Suk-yeol and others exploited the political situation at the time and, under the pretext of swiftly eradicating anti-state forces by branding the opposition party's legislation, impeachments of public officials, and budget formulation as anti-state acts amounting to an insurrection that paralyzed administrative and judicial functions, declared martial law late at night on Dec. 3, 2024."
He continued, "Yoon Suk-yeol and others declared martial law with the purpose of monopolizing and maintaining power by using force to suspend political activities and the functions of the National Assembly, seizing legislative and judicial powers through an emergency legislative body to replace the National Assembly, and then eliminating opposition forces." He cited former commander Noh Sang-won's notebook, former Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok's directive documents, and former commander Yeo In-hyung's memo as grounds.
Regarding the motive for the former president's declaration of martial law, Cho said, "It was not out of conviction; he sought to label those who defied or opposed him as anti-state forces through martial law and eliminate them." He cited as grounds a remark at a corps commanders' dinner on Oct. 1 last year: "Bring in Han Dong-hoon. I will shoot him dead," and an attempt to arrest a judge who handed down a ruling that displeased him.
In addition, Cho concluded that the former president and others, to fabricate a pretext for martial law and suspending the National Assembly's functions, attempted to send armed soldiers into the National Election Commission and to form an investigation team centered on Defense Intelligence Command agents to falsify the April general election results as election fraud carried out by anti-state forces.