SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s ousted conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol plotted for over a year to impose martial law to eliminate his political rivals and monopolize power, investigators concluded Monday.
Yoon’s martial law decree in December 2024 lasted only several hours and resulted in his rapid downfall.
Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk, who announced the six-month probe’s result, also accused the former president and his military allies of ordering operations against North Korea, in a deliberate bid to stoke tensions and justify his plans to declare martial law.
Despite the lack of a serious response from North Korea, Cho said that Yoon declared martial law by branding the liberal-controlled legislature as “anti-state forces” that must be urgently removed.
There was no immediate reaction from Yoon, who is in jail while standing trials for high-stakes rebellion charges. Yoon has steadfastly maintained that his martial law declaration was a desperate attempt to draw public support for his fight against the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, which obstructed his agenda while holding a majority in the legislature.
Meanwhile, police raided the headquarters of the Unification Church on Monday as they probe separate bribery allegations against more politicians. An independent investigation involving Yoon’s wife and the church has been underway for several months.
Deliberately provoking North Korea
Cho said Yoon and his military associates had schemed to enforce martial law since before October 2023 and that they reshuffled top military officials to place their associates in key posts while removing a defense minister who opposed their plan. Cho said they hosted dinner parties to give their martial law plan traction among military leaders.
Cho said Yoon, his Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun and Yeo In-hyung, then commander of the military’s counterintelligence agency, orchestrated various military operations against North Korea from October 2024. Cho’s deputy earlier accused Yoon of ordering drone flights over the North, which Yoon has argued he hadn’t been informed of.
The lead investigator said North Korea didn’t retaliate, likely because it was preoccupied with its support of Russia’s war against Ukraine, and so Yoon lacked legal grounds to impose military rule, but went ahead anyway to swiftly “eradicate anti-state forces.”
“Yoon Suk Yeol … tried to declare martial law by inciting military provocations by North Korea, but that plan failed,” Cho said. “Yoon declared emergency martial law to monopolize and maintain power by taking control of the legislative and judiciary branches and eliminating his political opponents.”
In a case that showed the seriousness of Yoon’s hostilities against his opponents, Cho said Yoon called his governing People Power Party’s main rival Han Dong-hun “a commie” and said “I’ll shoot him to death” in meetings with military generals.
Han was at odds with Yoon over scandals involving the former president’s wife. Park Ji-young, a senior investigator on Cho’s team, downplayed suspicions that his wife’s troubles drove Yoon to declare martial law, saying the move was primarily about grabbing power.
Yoon’s botched power grab
Hundreds of troops encircled the parliament building and entered the election commission offices after Yoon declared martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. Thousands of people flocked to the National Assembly at the time, protesting the decree and demanding Yoon step down. Lawmakers made it inside the building and voted down Yoon’s order within hours. Lawmakers later in December voted to impeach Yoon, suspending his powers and putting his fate with the Constitutional Court, which formally removed him from office in April.
Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae Myung became South Korea’s new president via a snap election in June, and he appointed three independent counsels to probe Yoon’s martial law and other allegations against him, his wife and other associates.
Cho said that Yoon and 23 other people, including his top officials, including Defense Minister Kim, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, have been indicted over Yoon’s martial law decree. Some military generals were also arrested and indicted by military prosecutors.
Park said there were signs that Yoon and his allies feared potential interference from Washington and may have timed their martial law attempt after the U.S. presidential election in November to exploit the distraction created by the transition to a new president.
Unification Church scandal
Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, was separately arrested and indicted over charges unrelated to her husband’s martial law, including one that she received bribes through an intermediary from a Unification Church official seeking business favors.
Police said they raided several Unification Church -related facilities, including its headquarters in Seoul and its sprawling complex in nearby Gapyeong, following allegations that the religious group offered money and gifts to a wider range of politicians than previously thought, including Democratic Party members. Officers also searched a detention center where the church’s 82-year-old leader, Hak Ja Han, has been held since September.
Police also searched the home and office of Chun Jae-soo, Lee’s former minister of oceans and fisheries, and the homes of former Democratic Party lawmaker Lim Jong-seong and Kim Gyu-hwan, a lawmaker with a PPP predecessor, over suspicions that they received bribes from the church.
Chun denied allegations that he received bribes from the church but stepped down as minister last week, saying he did not want to burden Lee’s administration. Lee, during a meeting last week, called for a thorough investigation into allegations of murky ties between politicians and a religious group, without citing the Unification Church by name.
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