A South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant for the former defense minister due to the imposition of martial law

A South Korean court has issued an arrest warrant for the former defense minister in connection with the imposition of martial law last week.

The Seoul Central District Court said it approved the prosecutor’s request for an arrest warrant for Kim Yong-hyun.

Mr. Kim is accused of he conspired with President Yoon Suk Yeol and others in the imposition of martial law on December 3, which brought armed forces to the streets of Seoul. The authorities are investigating whether their actions can be called a riot.

Mr. Kim became the first person arrested in the case.

Earlier, Martial law, the first in more than 40 yearswhich lasted only about six hours but sparked an internal fire and large street protests. Yun and his associates face criminal investigation and impeachment attempts. The Ministry of Justice has barred Yun and eight others from leaving the country because authorities consider them prime suspects in the martial law case. This is the first time that a sitting South Korean president has been banned from entering.

The Seoul Central District Court said on Tuesday (Dec 10, 2024) it was considering prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun, who is accused of recommending that Yun impose martial law and send troops to the National Assembly to prevent lawmakers from voting on it. . Eventually, enough lawmakers managed to enter the chamber and unanimously reject Yoon’s decree, forcing the Cabinet to rescind it by dawn on December 4.

In a statement on Tuesday, Kim said he was “deeply sorry for causing considerable concern and inconvenience.” He said that the entire responsibility for imposing martial law rested solely on him and asked for leniency in the soldiers who had been sent to enforce it, saying that they were only following his orders.

Kim has been in custody since Sunday. If an arrest warrant is issued, he will be the first person arrested in the case. Prosecutors will have up to 20 days to investigate Kim and decide whether to charge him. Conviction on the charge of rebellion carried the death penalty.

Prosecutors reportedly accuse Kim of playing a key role in the uprising and abusing his power by staging riots to violate the constitution in collaboration with Yun and other military and police officers. Prosecutors in Seoul could not immediately confirm the report.

The opposition-controlled parliament passed a bill on Tuesday to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate Yun and other high-ranking military officials over the imposition of martial law. The main opposition Democratic Party has pushed for a special counsel investigation, arguing that prosecutors cannot be trusted to conduct a thorough investigation of Yoon, a former attorney general.

During a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, Kwak Jong-keun, the commander of the army’s Special Forces Command, whose troops were sent to parliament, testified that he received direct instructions from Kim Yong-hyun to prevent lawmakers from entering the main chamber of the National Assembly. Kwak said the purpose of Kim’s instructions was to prevent the 300-member parliament from gathering the 150 votes needed to overturn Yun’s martial law order.

Kwak said Yoon later called him directly and asked troops to “quickly break down the door and pull out the lawmakers inside.” Kwak said he discussed Yoon’s order with the commander at the scene, and they concluded there was nothing that could be done, barring threatening lawmakers by firing blank rounds or cutting off electricity.

At the same hearing, senior military counterintelligence officer Kim Dae-woo said his commander, Ye In-hyung, asked him if there was room in an army bunker in Seoul to detain politicians and other figures after martial law was imposed. Yeo is considered a close associate of Kim Yong-hyun. Hong Chang-won, deputy director of the country’s intelligence agency, said last week that Yoon had ordered him to help Yeo’s team arrest some of his political rivals, but Yeo had ignored the president’s order.

Kwak and Yeo are among those facing sedition charges brought by the opposition, along with Yoon and Kim, and were suspended by the Defense Ministry last week.

Opposition parties and many experts consider the martial law decree unconstitutional. They say the president is only legally allowed to declare martial law during “wartime, war-like situations or other similar emergencies,” and South Korea was not in such a situation. They argue that the deployment of the military to seal off the National Assembly and suspend its political activities was tantamount to rebellion because the South Korean Constitution does not allow the president to use the military to suspend parliament in any situation.

In his martial law announcement, conservative Yoon stressed the need to rebuild the country by eliminating “shameless North Korean followers and anti-state forces,” referring to his liberal rivals who control parliament. Since taking office in 2022, Yoon has been in near-constant conflict with the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, which has filed impeachment motions against some of his top officials and launched a brutal political offensive against Yoon amid a spate of scandals involving him and his wife.

The focus now is on how the authorities can investigate Yoon and whether they can apprehend him.

South Korean law grants the president immunity from prosecution while in office, except for charges of rebellion or treason. That means Yoon could be questioned and detained by investigators over his martial law decree, but many observers doubt authorities will detain him forcibly because of the potential for clashes with the president’s security services. They also say the security service is unlikely to authorize a search of Yun’s office, citing a law that prohibits searches of sites containing state secrets without the permission of those responsible for those areas.

In the case of former President Park Geun-hye, who was ousted from office in 2017 after being impeached by parliament over a corruption scandal, prosecutors were unable to search her office and ended up obtaining documents outside the territory because presidential officials rejected them. After refusing to meet with prosecutors while in office, Park was questioned by them and arrested after the Constitutional Court upheld her impeachment and ordered her removal as president in March 2017.

Yoon avoided impeachment on Saturday after most ruling party lawmakers boycotted the vote in the National Assembly. The Democratic Party said it would prepare for another vote to impeach Yun on Saturday. The party also filed impeachment motions against police chief Yoon and the justice minister on Tuesday. This prompted the impeachment of Kim Yong-hyun and the security minister, but they resigned before parliament could vote.

If Yun is impeached, his presidential powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to reinstate him or remove him from office. If she votes to remove him, a new presidential election will be needed.