South Korea: search of presidential office, former defense minister attempts suicide
Police said Wednesday they searched the presidential office after President Yoon’s failed attempt to impose martial law in South Korea a week ago, while the former defense minister in office during the coup tried to commit suicide in detention, according to Yonhap.
“The Special Investigation Team conducted a search at the presidential office, the National Police Agency, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and the National Assembly Security Department,” it said. police unit in a message sent to AFP.
Yoon Suk Yeol stunned the country by imposing martial law by surprise on the night of December 3 to 4, before being forced to repeal it six hours later under pressure from Parliament and the streets.
He has since narrowly escaped a motion for dismissal submitted to a vote by the National Assembly, saved by his party. But the opposition plans to try again on Saturday.
On Wednesday, a prison service official said that the former defense minister in office at the time of the short-lived declaration of martial law, Kim Yong-hyun, had attempted suicide in detention, shortly before being taken into custody. formally arrested late Tuesday, following the issuance by a court of an arrest warrant against him.
Accused of having played a “crucial role during a rebellion” and committing an “abuse of power to obstruct the exercise of rights”, he had already been detained since Sunday.
Under investigation for “rebellion”, the unpopular President Yoon, 63, is prohibited from leaving the country, as are the former Minister of Defense, the former Minister of the Interior and the commander of the failed attempt at martial law.
“The entire responsibility for the situation rests solely on me,” Kim Yong-hyun said on Tuesday in a statement carried by his lawyers, indicating that he apologized “deeply”.
Cho Ji-ho, the commissioner general of the National Police Agency, as well as the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Kim Bong-sik, were also arrested early Wednesday, according to police.
– First reaction from the North –
In the morning, North Korean state media reacted for the first time.
The “shocking act of the puppet Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing impeachment and a governance crisis, suddenly declaring a decree of martial law and without hesitation brandishing the guns and knives of his fascist dictatorship, has sowed seeds chaos throughout South Korea,” they wrote.
Mr. Yoon, constantly defeated by a National Assembly largely sympathetic to the opposition, had justified his decision to impose martial law by his desire to protect South Korea from “North Korean communist forces” and “eliminate elements hostile to the State”.
Helicopters and soldiers were deployed to Parliament to prevent MPs from meeting there and voting to lift his decree. But 190 of them managed to enter and unanimously adopt the end of this state of exception.
Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun was accused by opposition lawmakers of ordering drones to be sent to Pyongyang in an apparent attempt to create a casus belli with the North, which would have served as a pretext to proclaim martial law.
These deputies also accused him of having called for striking launch sites for North Korean waste balloons, which flew by the thousands towards the South starting in May.
– Exit plan –
On Tuesday, a working group from Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) proposed a road map on the president’s removal.
Two options are being considered: the resignation of Yoon Suk Yeol in February or March, with a new presidential election in April or May.
The proposal has not yet been accepted by the entire PPP.
Even if it were, it is unlikely that the opposition would abandon a new impeachment motion.
This would only need eight defections from the presidential party to be able to pass.
During the first attempt on December 7, only two PPP elected officials voted in favor. But on Tuesday, two others said they would do the same.
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