February 14, 2025
SEOUL – The Constitutional Court of Korea said Thursday that it will add a final hearing to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial to “organize evidence gathered so far.” Over eight sessions, 14 witnesses, including key military commanders, have testified.
The 9th hearing will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
“We will go over the evidence that we didn’t have a chance to look into,” Moon Hyung-bae, acting chief of the court, said during the eighth hearing, adding that each side will be given two hours to finalize their arguments.
After the final hearing on Feb. 18, the court is expected to review the case for about two weeks and could deliver its verdict on Yoon’s impeachment as early as mid-March, following the timeline of past cases involving former Presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye which both took two weeks to conclude.
On Thursday, Col. Cho Seong-hyun, commander of the 1st Security Group at the Capital Defense Command, appeared as a witness and testified that his superior, Lee Jin-woo, then-chief of the Command, had given him the order to support special forces soldiers at the National Assembly as they drag out lawmakers from the building.
Cho was the only witness who was directly requested by the court justices so far, a decision by the court to verify what kind of military order had been made regarding Yoon’s alleged order to arrest lawmakers — who were gathering on the night of martial law declaration to vote to lift the president’s martial law.
Lee, who showed up as a witness and testified on Feb. 4, said that he “cannot fully recall” what happened that night. He had also declined to elaborate, citing concerns over their ongoing criminal trial.
“Lee called me and said that we don’t have to go into the building as other troops are already in. He ordered me to go support from outside (such as by making a way for them as they drag out lawmakers,)” Cho said.
He added that he chose not to relay the order to his subordinates, calling it “unprecedented.”
“It was unclear to me what exactly our assigned task was meant to achieve. At that moment, I was puzzled to see citizens that we were supposed to protect trying to stop our actions,” Cho recalled on the night of the short-lived martial law attempt.
“I felt that the mission’s objective was unclear. A mission should have a clear and definite purpose, but we were only given fragmented tasks. We were assigned duties that we had never considered or thought about before — like blocking the National Assembly and removing lawmakers. No soldier who heard that could have processed it as a normal order.”
“That’s why I also judged that it would be better if the follow-up units didn’t come. I needed time to think,” he said, adding that it was also his decision to order his subordinates to stop crossing the Seogang Bridge — the route taken as they were bringing more troops to the Assembly that night.
NIS chief questions subordinate’s testimony
Meanwhile, the National Intelligence Service Director Cho Tae-yong directly refuted the testimony of his subordinate, former First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won, about a note allegedly containing a list of 14 prominent politicians and outspoken critics of President Yoon Suk Yeol, which Yoon had ordered arrested the night of his Dec. 3 martial law declaration.
Cho testified that Hong had been at a different location that night, casting doubt on the first deputy director’s testimony, in which he said Yoon had ordered him to arrest the 14 politicians and critics.
Hong, who was at that time the No. 2 at the NIS, testified at the trial’s fifth hearing on Feb. 5 to have written down a list of politicians he was ordered by Yoon to arrest, in front of Cho’s official residence. Hong testified that he had written down the list during a phone call with Yeo In-hyung, who was then commander of the Defense Counterintelligence Command. Hong had gone there to report about the martial law declaration to Cho, but he wasn’t there.
“Hong was inside his office at 11:06 p.m. on Dec. 3, the time he claimed to be in front of my official residence,” Cho said during Thursday’s hearing.
“I’ve checked this on surveillance camera footage,” he added.
Hong previously testified that before he spoke to Yeo the night of Dec. 3, Yoon had called him directly at 10:53 p.m., immediately after his declaration of martial law. He testified that Yoon instructed him to “take this opportunity to round them all up. Get rid of them all.”
Yoon admitted to having called Hong directly, but denied ordering the arrest of politicians in Thursday’s hearing.
“I remember I called Hong that night. But it was just to check whether Cho was in the country or was traveling to the US for a business trip. I feel sorry for calling him that night because it has caused all this debate,” Yoon told the justices.
Cho also said he had double-checked with one of the first deputy director’s three aides whether the latter had transcribed Hong’s note that night, which Hong testified to have had done because he had stopped writing, thinking “something was strange” about the order.
Hong, during the fifth hearing held on Feb. 5, said the note he had “hurriedly jotted down was later transcribed by” his aide.
“When I checked, the aide said he did transcribe the note that night. But then Hong asked his aide to rewrite the memo the next day, saying that he couldn’t fully recall (the list of people),” Cho said.
Hong had testified at the Feb. 5 hearing that there were two versions of the note: the original note that he jotted down during Yoon’s call, and the one his aide transcribed.
But Thursday, Cho testified that there were actually four versions of the note, including a third note that Hong asked his aide on Dec. 4 to write down again based on the aide’s memory, and a fourth note, of which he didn’t specify the author, which had more names than the third note.
When Yoon’s legal representative asked Cho whether Hong had given false testimony, Cho said “I think it was false testimony,” adding that he strongly questions the credibility of Hong’s remarks.
Hong was not called in for testimony on Thursday. Yoon’s lawyer requested that the court call him in again and the chief justice said they would discuss it at Thursday’s hearing.
Cho, during the hearing, also admitted to having exchanged text messages with first lady Kim Keon Hee on the night of Dec. 3.
“I did text with her, but it’s an unusual case,” Cho answered when a National Assembly’s legal representative, who is serving as the prosecutor in Yoon’s impeachment trial, asked him why Kim had contacted him that night.
Thursday’s hearing also called in the ex-commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Kim Bong-sik.