February 6, 2025
SEOUL – President Yoon Suk Yeol’s remarks in his ongoing impeachment trial reveal his views on the martial law fiasco that occurred late in the evening of Dec. 3, 2024, eventually leading to his impeachment and arrest for insurrection.
The suspended leader, during the fifth hearing of his impeachment trial Tuesday, refuted charges against him by saying that not much had happened during the six hours of martial law, so there were insufficient grounds to warrant his impeachment.
“This case and other criminal cases differ in that investigation or trials usually discuss the events that actually happened, like arresting politicians or forcibly pulling someone out (of certain place). … In this case, nothing actually happened, but we’re talking about giving instructions and such,” Yoon said in the fifth hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Jongno, Seoul.
“It’s like chasing the shadow of the moon floating on a lake,” he said regarding the charges against him.
The focal point of Tuesday’s hearing was whether the suspended president had issued orders to arrest prominent politicians such as National Speaker Woo Won-shik, the ruling People Power Party’s then-leader Han Dong-hoon and main opposition Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung.
No harm, no foul?
Yoon emphasized that no significant developments occurred during the night of Dec. 3-4, 2024. He lifted the martial law decree just six hours after its proclamation, yielding to a parliamentary vote that demanded its abolition.
“About 10 soldiers of the Capital Defense Command barely entered the National Assembly and they were not even armed. … The (Army’s) Special Warfare Command broke in through the window, and they exited after being attacked with fire extinguishers,” he said.
The Defense Ministry in December officially stated that 1,500 soldiers had been mobilized during martial law, including at least 61 enlisted soldiers of some 200 troops from the Capital Defense Command. That contrasts from Yoon’s comment on Dec. 12 that no enlisted soldiers were mobilized that night.
The president on Tuesday reiterated his stance that the controversial declaration of martial law — South Korea’s first since the military junta government led by Chun Doo-hwan in 1980 — was merely a warning to the opposition. He defended his actions as a “plea to the public in the form of martial law.”
He denied the prosecution saying that military commanders had testified about him giving the order to lock down the National Assembly and arrest lawmakers. “I wouldn’t want to comment on great generals’ testimonies, but to think that is possible from a common sense point of view …,” he said, trailing off.
Military commanders at Tuesday’s hearing, including then-Commander Lee Jin-woo of the Capital Defense Command, who told the prosecution that Yoon ordered him to drag lawmakers out of the parliament and “shoot if you had to,” had refused to testify directly on the alleged order.
Hong Jang-won — the former first deputy director of the National Intelligence Service who was the first to testify on the politicians’ arrest order — maintained that Yoon gave the order to “catch them all,” and that he was handed the arrest order from Yeo In-hyung, who was then chief of the Defense Counterintelligence Command.
Yoon maintains he did nothing wrong
Yoon said Tuesday that deploying troops to the National Election Commission headquarters during martial law was to “check” for election rigging, a claim for which repeated investigations by authorities have not found evidence.
Since becoming the first president in the country’s history to be arrested in a criminal investigation, Yoon has sent several messages out to the public and political allies from behind bars. His messages consistently state that he did not commit any wrongdoings throughout martial law, and that he was “dumbfounded” by the charges against him.
Last week, Yoon met with the presidential staff at the Seoul Detention Center and told them “not to get discouraged and do your best at your positions.”
In a message relayed by Rep. Na Kyung-won of the ruling People Power Party on Monday, Yoon said, “It’s a relief that people had learned about how the Democratic Party paralyzed the state affairs at will because of the martial law.”
According to Yoon’s point of view, the fault lies in the opposition, who he claims “paralyzed state affairs,” and the “anti-state forces” that supposedly rigged elections, according to a written message to the public revealed just after his arrest last month. He wrote, “I decided that the actions of the gigantic opposition party represent a national emergency equivalent to wartime, and it is the duty of the president to protect the Republic of Korea’s system from catastrophic crisis.”
While under detention, the president has sent messages of support to those protesting for his release, calling them “patriots who love freedom and democracy,” and saying that he is “thankful and worried” for the protesters. The messages of support have widely been interpreted as rallying supporters.
Meanwhile, some pro-Yoon protests have turned violent, epitomized by the Jan. 19 attack by his supporters on the Seoul Western District Court, which issued Yoon’s arrest warrant. The attack left 51 police officers and 41 civilians injured, with 65 people arrested for the attack and related protests in the following days.