S Korea’s Yoon ignored Cabinet opposition to martial law: prosecutors
SOUTH Korea’s suspended President Yoon Suk-yeol ignored the objections of key Cabinet ministers before his failed martial law bid last month, according to a prosecutors’ report seen by AFP on Sunday (Jan 5).
Yoon plunged the country into political chaos on Dec 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since holed up in his residence, surrounded by hundreds of security officers resisting arrest efforts.
The full 83-page prosecution report to indict former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun said the country’s then prime minister, foreign minister and finance minister all expressed reservations on the night of the decision.
They made their concerns clear about the economic and diplomatic fallout in a Cabinet meeting, which Yoon called before his short-lived power grab.
“The economy would face severe difficulties, and I fear a decline in international credibility,” then prime minister Han Duck-soo told Yoon, according to the report seen by AFP.
Han became acting president after Yoon was stripped of his duties, but was also impeached by opposition members of parliament who argued that he refused demands to complete Yoon’s impeachment process and to bring him to justice.
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Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul reportedly said martial law would have “diplomatic repercussions but also destroy the achievements South Korea has built over the past 70 years”.
Acting president Choi Sang-mok, also finance minister, argued the decision would have “devastating effects on the economy and the country’s credibility”.
Despite the objections, Yoon said “there is no turning back”, claiming the opposition – which won a landslide in April’s parliamentary election – would lead the country to collapse.
“Neither the economy nor diplomacy will function,” he reportedly said.
An earlier summary of the report provided to the media last month revealed that Yoon authorised the military to fire their weapons to enter parliament during the failed bid.
The suspended president’s lawyer Yoon Kab-keun dismissed the prosecutors’ report.
He told AFP the indictment report alone does not constitute an insurrection and “it doesn’t align legally, and there’s no evidence either”.
Yoon remains under investigation on charges of insurrection and faces arrest, prison or, at worst, the death penalty.
The Constitutional Court slated Jan 14 for the start of Yoon’s impeachment trial, which if he does not attend would continue in his absence. However the suspended leader plans to appear at “an appropriate session” of the trial’s five hearings, the lawyer Yoon said on Sunday.
The court may take the prosecutors’ report on Kim – one of the first indicted over the martial law bid – into consideration.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court has up to 180 days to determine whether to dismiss Yoon as president or restore his powers. Until then, while suspended, Yoon holds the title of president.
An attempt to arrest Yoon by investigators on Friday failed when a tense six-hour stand-off with his presidential security service ended over security fears, with his supporters also camped outside. Yoon’s lawyers decried the warrant underpinning Friday’s arrest attempt as “unlawful and invalid”, and filed an objection to the Seoul court that issued it. But the court told AFP on Sunday that the objection case was dismissed, saying the reasons could not be disclosed. Yoon’s lawyer said they would file another complaint against the head of the Corruption Investigation Office that tried to arrest Yoon.
On Sunday, thousands of South Koreans descended on Yoon’s residence despite bitter snow conditions blanketing the capital – with one camp demanding Yoon’s arrest while the other called for his impeachment to be declared invalid. Presidential security service chief Park Jong-joon said he had no intention of letting the investigators arrest Yoon by Monday’s deadline, because those under his charge were legally obliged to protect the country’s sitting leader.
“Executing an arrest warrant amid allegations of procedural and legal impropriety undermines the PSS’s fundamental mission of securing the President’s absolute safety,” Park, who has denied a police request for questioning, said in a speech.
Early on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Seoul, likely to wade into the crisis of a key security ally in talks on Monday with his counterpart Cho.
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