South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol authorized the army to shoot to enter Parliament in early December during his attempt to impose martial law for which he was impeached, according to a prosecutor’s report consulted by the Agency France-Presse (AFP), Saturday December 28.
“Haven’t you come in yet?” What are you doing ? Break the door and get them out, even if it means shooting.”he declared on December 3 during a telephone call with the military commander of Seoul, Lee Jin-woo, who was near Parliament, according to the prosecution.
He released to the media the indictment report of the former defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, considered to be the person who pushed President Yoon to impose martial law. It was proclaimed on December 3 to everyone’s surprise, while the president sent the army to Parliament in order to muzzle it, plunging the country into chaos.
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After martial law was declared, heavily armed soldiers stormed Parliament, scaling barriers, breaking windows and, some, landing by helicopter. According to the ten-page report, the president also ordered military counterintelligence chief Gen. Kwak Jong-keun to“get inside quickly” of the building.
“Get the people inside the Assembly out, destroy the doors with an ax if necessary”he said, according to the prosecution, which adds that the president would have discussed martial law as early as March with senior military officials. As lawmakers rushed to reject martial law at dawn on December 4, President Yoon told Mr. Lee that he would declare it “a second and a third time”.
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Investigation for rebellion
The president’s lawyer, Yoon Kab-keun, told AFP that this information from the prosecution was biased and did not correspond “neither to objective facts nor to common sense”. In a speech in December, Mr. Yoon said he was not considering a second attempt at proclaiming martial law and apologized for “anxiety and inconvenience”.
Dismissed from office, he was investigated for rebellion, a crime punishable by death, and officially remained president pending a ruling from the Constitutional Court confirming or overturning the deputies’ decision.
The corruption investigation office, which centralizes investigations, has already summoned the deposed president twice to question him about the events that occurred on the night of December 3 to 4, which stunned the country. But Mr. Yoon did not appear for any of these summonses.
On December 19, the investigators sent him a third summons for a hearing on December 29 in the morning. On December 20, interim President Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was also dismissed, with MPs accusing him of trying to obstruct the investigation into his predecessor’s coup. The new interim head of state, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, has promised to “put an end to the government crisis”by doing “absolute priority”.
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