South Korea: deposed president accused of authorizing army to open fire to impose martial law
South Korean prosecutors on Saturday accused deposed President Yoon Suk Yeol of authorizing the army to open fire to enter Parliament during his failed attempt to impose martial law, causing a serious crisis policy.
Nearly a month after this coup, Asia’s fourth largest economy finds itself in political chaos which was further aggravated with the dismissal on Friday by the deputies of the interim head of state in place for less than two weeks.
While new pro- and anti-Yoon demonstrations were held on Saturday, the prosecution released the indictment report of former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, considered to be the person who pushed the president to impose martial law .
It was proclaimed on December 3 to everyone’s surprise, while the president sent the army to Parliament.
“Haven’t you come in yet? What are you doing? Break down the door and get them out, even if it means shooting,” he said in a Dec. 3 phone call with Seoul’s military commander, Lee Jin-woo, who was near Parliament, according to the prosecution.
After martial law was declared, heavily armed soldiers stormed Parliament, scaling barriers, smashing windows and some landing by helicopter.
– “With an axe” –
According to the 10-page report, the president also ordered military counterintelligence chief Gen. Kwak Jong-keun to “quickly enter inside” Parliament.
“Get people out inside the assembly, 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 third time.”
The president’s lawyer, Yoon Kab-keun, told AFP that this information from the prosecution was biased and corresponded “neither to objective facts nor to common sense”.
During a speech in December, Mr. Yoon said he was not considering a second attempt to proclaim martial law and apologized for the “anguish and inconvenience.”
Dismissed from office, he is the subject of an investigation for “rebellion”, a crime punishable by death and officially remains president pending a ruling from the Constitutional Court, which has six months to confirm or refute the decision of the deputies.
In opposition, Democratic Party MP Kang Sun-woo said the prosecution’s report had “uncovered the terrible and undeniable truth about Yoon Suk Yeol, the ringleader of the betrayal”, calling for his “immediate” arrest.
The Corruption Investigation Bureau, which centralizes investigations, has already summoned the deposed president twice for questioning. But Mr. Yoon did not appear for any of these summonses.
Investigators sent him a third summons on Thursday for a hearing on Sunday morning.
On the political level, Korea has its third leader in less than a month: the interim president in place since mid-December, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, was in turn dismissed on Friday, MPs accusing him of having tried to obstruct the investigation into his predecessor’s coup.
The new interim head of state, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, promised to “put an end to the government crisis.”
But the situation is unprecedented for the country, plunged into uncertainty which caused its currency to plunge to its lowest level in 16 years on Friday.
Tens of thousands of people from both camps rallied in Seoul on Saturday, with anti-Yoon protesters carrying signs calling for the ousted president’s arrest.
On the side of his supporters, Danny Ko, 31, defends martial law in the face of opposition that he describes as “insurrectional”: “Now the Democratic Party will dismiss (the Minister of Finance and new interim president) Choi Sang-mok, like Han, and the country will descend into madness,” he told AFP.
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