Kwon Chang-young's second consolidated special counsel team launched a compulsory investigation into the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) over alleged involvement in martial law and a suspected second attempt.
According to legal sources on the 24th, the consolidated special counsel sent prosecutors and investigators to the JCS headquarters in Yongsan District, Seoul, and is executing a search and seizure warrant.
In the search and seizure warrant, the consolidated special counsel named four JCS officials, including former Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Kim Myung-soo, as suspects on charges of engaging in important duties related to insurrection.
The consolidated special counsel is said to have obtained testimony during recent questioning of former and incumbent Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) officials indicating that former President Yoon Suk-yeol asked the JCS to deploy additional troops after the National Assembly passed a resolution demanding the lifting of the Dec. 3 martial law.
The search and seizure appears aimed at determining whether the JCS was involved in troop operations before and after the martial law declaration and whether, at former President Yoon's direction in the early hours of the following day, it prepared a "second martial law."
After the National Assembly resolution passed, former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, former Army Chief of Staff Park An-su (then martial law commander), and others are known to have gathered in the decision support room inside the JCS combat control room to discuss countermeasures.
Earlier, the special counsel for insurrection, which investigated the case, summoned JCS officials, including the former chairman Kim, several times but failed to detect signs of involvement in martial law and ultimately issued a non-indictment disposition.