South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has revealed that he personally ordered the military to assist the Central Election Commission during the December 3 emergency martial law declaration.
This disclosure came after the testimony of former Army Intelligence Command Chief Yeo In Hyung during the fifth impeachment trial at South Korea’s Constitutional Court.
Yoon explained that he instructed former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun to send military personnel to the Election Commission, clarifying that it wasn’t a criminal investigation but rather a move to inspect the commission’s computer systems.
He emphasized that the military’s role was to evaluate systems that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) could not fully monitor.
The president further explained that he had issued the directive during discussions with Kim in late November of the previous year, specifically about the planned martial law declaration.
Yoon also expressed his longstanding concerns about election integrity: “Throughout my career as a prosecutor, I’ve seen numerous ballots raise questions during vote counts. While opinions differ on what constitutes election fraud, I have always believed some issues must be addressed.”
Regarding the military’s actions, Yoon clarified, “The deployed soldiers may have assumed they were tasked with seizing servers or engaging in other actions, but my instructions were simply to observe how the systems were functioning.” He continued, “I was briefed that no hardware, software, or data was seized at all.”
Yoon later learned that it wasn’t counterintelligence agents, as initially believed, but personnel from the Military Intelligence Command who were sent. He noted that Kim had reported that the IT experts chosen for the task were highly skilled, which was why they were deployed.
Yoon admitted that he had not informed his Cabinet members about the warning nature of martial law.
He explained, “In my conversations with Minister Kim, I framed it as a public appeal using the martial law structure, understanding that it would be immediately lifted if the National Assembly passed a resolution. However, I couldn’t disclose this to Cabinet members before the declaration.”
The Minister of National Defense also elaborated that commanders were instructed to carry out their duties without mentioning that martial law would soon be lifted. As a result, operations were conducted according to standard protocols, which may have led to more extensive measures being implemented than initially intended.
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