Seoul, Dec 15 Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol began preparations for his short-lived imposition of martial law in or before October 2023, more than a year before the December 2024 declaration, a special counsel team concluded on Monday.
Special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team shared the conclusion as it announced the results of its 180-day investigation into the martial law bid after indicting 24 people, including the ousted former president, former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, former National Intelligence Service Director Cho Tae-yong and former Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun.
The team said Yoon staged an insurrection through his martial law declaration in order to remove his political opponents and monopolise and maintain power, contradicting the former president's claims that the emergency order was aimed at protecting the nation from a reckless opposition party.
"Yoon Suk Yeol and others aimed to halt political activities and the National Assembly's functions by military force and remove opposition forces by seizing legislative and judiciary powers through an emergency legislative body replacing the National Assembly," Cho said at a briefing at his office in southern Seoul.
"He declared martial law by framing the political activities carried out at the National Assembly as anti-state acts and anti-state forces plotting an insurrection," he added.
The team said it determined the former president had mentioned his "emergency powers" on numerous occasions to multiple people since the early days of his term, which began in May 2022 and ended abruptly in April 2025 after the Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment by the National Assembly.
For example, at a dinner with leaders of the then ruling People Power Party in November 2022, Yoon claimed he had emergency powers and would "wipe them all out" even if he was shot dead, according to the special counsel, Yonhap news agency reported.
Then, ahead of a military reshuffle in October 2023, Yoon and his aides began martial law preparations in earnest by considering whether to impose the decree before or after the reshuffle and appointing some of the key figures now implicated in the martial law case to top commander positions, the team said.
The special counsel team was made up of 238 people, including assistant special counsels, prosecutors and investigators.
It indicted Yoon on three occasions, on charges of obstruction of justice, aiding an enemy and perjury, all in connection with the martial law episode. Prior to the launch of the team in June, the former president had already been indicted by prosecutors on charges of leading an insurrection and abusing his power.
The team said it concluded that Yoon sought to build a case for his martial law imposition by sending drones into North Korea and inciting its retaliation. The plan failed, however, as the North did not retaliate militarily.
Yoon also sought to cast the April 2024 general election results, lost by his ruling party, as electoral fraud led by anti-state forces and plotted to arrest officials of the National Election Commission during the brief imposition of martial law, according to the team.
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