Noh Sang-won, the former commander of the Defense Intelligence Command, was sentenced to two years in prison for allegedly taking personal information of Defense Intelligence Command agents to set up a team to investigate suspected election fraud. It is the first district court ruling among the cases indicted by special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk on the alleged insurrection, and the first court finding that the Dec. 3 emergency martial law was unconstitutional and illegal.
The Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 21 (Chief Judge Lee Hyun-bok) on the 15th sentenced the former commander Noh to two years in prison and ordered the forfeiture of 24.9 million won on charges including violating the Personal Information Protection Act and brokering bribes under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes.
The court found all charges against the former commander Noh guilty. The court said, "The former commander Noh's crime became one of the drivers that pushed the emergency martial law, which lacked the substantive requirements, to the proclamation stage," and "Beyond liability for violating the Personal Information Protection Act, it led to the grave and absurd outcome of proclaiming unconstitutional and illegal emergency martial law, and severe responsibility is unavoidable."
The former commander Noh, as a civilian after being discharged between September and December last year, was brought to trial on charges of planning a "second task force" to investigate suspected election fraud and receiving from then-commander Moon Sang-ho personal details—including rank, hometown, and commissioning year—of 46 Defense Intelligence Command agents.
The court found that the former commander Noh planned the task force to investigate the National Election Commission with the emergency martial law situation in mind. As for the claim that it was to prepare for a mass defection of North Koreans, the court said, "It was merely to conceal the real purpose of the personnel selection request or to create a pretext." The fact that the former commander Moon, just before the declaration of emergency martial law, assembled the agents listed and assigned them a mission to arrest National Election Commission employees, move them to the Capital Defense Command bunker, and create a climate of fear also served as grounds to find the claim not credible.
The court said, "The formation of the task force was carried out as part of planning, preparing, and executing a proclamation of martial law at a specific time regardless of whether the conditions for declaring martial law had been met before the proclamation," adding, "This constitutes unconstitutional and illegal conduct."
He was also found guilty of receiving 20 million won in cash and 6 million won in department store gift certificates from former Defense Intelligence Command Central Press Corps chief Kim Bong-gyu and Army 2nd Armored Brigade commander Gu Sam-hoe between August and October last year under the pretext of helping them get promoted. The court found that the money and valuables all had a quid pro quo for promotion favors.
However, the court said it determined the sentence by considering that the agents' list did not leak outside the military, that the brokering of favors ended in failure, and the need for parity with a scenario in which the case had been consolidated with the case involving engagement in important duties related to insurrection.