(Seoul) 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 this coup de force tried to commit suicide in detention, according to the courts.
Posted at 12:59 p.m.
Updated at 11:44 p.m.
“The Special Investigation Team conducted searches at the presidential office, the National Police Agency, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and the National Assembly Security Department,” the statement 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 reported 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 custody minutes before his formal arrest , permitted by the issuance of a warrant against him.
On Tuesday evening, shortly before midnight (10 a.m. Eastern Time), “former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun attempted suicide at Dongbu Detention Center in Seoul,” the commissioner said. General Shin Yong-hae, during a parliamentary hearing.
PHOTO LEAH MILLIS, ARCHIVES REUTERS
Kim Yong-hyun, former South Korean defense minister
“It has been confirmed that Kim Yong-hyun tried to hang himself,” the Ministry of Justice said in a statement sent to AFP, assuring that his current state of health was good.
Accused of having played a “crucial role during a rebellion” and committing an “abuse of power to obstruct the exercise of rights”, Mr. Kim had already been in detention since Sunday, but a warrant was necessary to extend it.
He is currently under protection and in good health, according to Mr. Shin.
First reaction from the North
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 short-lived martial law.
“The entire responsibility for the situation rests solely on me,” Kim Yong-hyun said Tuesday, in a statement carried by his lawyers, indicating that he apologized “deeply”.
Cho Ji-ho, the commissioner general of the National Police Agency, and Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency chief Kim Bong-sik were also arrested early Wednesday, according to police.
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 caused chaos throughout South Korea,” they wrote.
Mr. Yoon, constantly defeated by a National Assembly largely aligned with the opposition, had justified his decision to impose martial law by his desire to protect South Korea from “North Korean communist forces” and to “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 lawmakers also accused him of calling for strikes at launch sites for North Korean trash balloons, which flew by the thousands toward 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.
She envisages Yoon Suk-yeol’s resignation 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.
