Night of chaos: Inside Yoon’s Cabinet in hours before declaration
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The hours before Mr Yoon’s late-night announcement, for much of which most Cabinet members were kept in the dark, were a whirlwind.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SEOUL – Public accounts from Cabinet members at the National Assembly have exposed a troubling picture of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Dec 3 martial law declaration
The hours before Mr Yoon’s late-night announcement – for much of which most Cabinet members were kept in the dark – were a whirlwind.
A brief, five-minute Cabinet meeting
Mr Yoon, who joined the meeting but did not even sit down, abruptly left the meeting. At 10.23pm, he began reading his statement – without the presence of Cabinet members or reporters. The live televised address culminated in the declaration of martial law at around 10.28pm.
Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Song Mi-Kyung vividly recounted that some of those present at the five-minute Cabinet meeting on Dec 3 were completely blindsided, leaving them powerless to intervene or stop him from making it public.
“(The President) briefly entered the room and then left. After he left, those who were seated were taken aback and asked, ‘Where did he go?’ At that moment, someone played a broadcast on their phone, and his voice came through. That’s what happened,” Mr Song said during the Dec 11 plenary session of the Assembly, recalling that the Cabinet meeting never formally concluded – there was no declaration signalling its end.
“It wasn’t even possible to grab hold of him or physically intervene in any way. I am truly sorry for this.”
Describing Mr Yoon’s martial law declaration as a “completely unimaginable event”, Mr Song added: “I never agreed to it. There may have been incompetence in failing to stop it, and helplessness in the face of it, but I was never complicit.”
After witnessing armed soldiers storming the National Assembly
“I was personally stunned by the announcement as well. The last time martial law was imposed in (South) Korea was 1979, when I joined the foreign ministry,” Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said during a press briefing for foreign media in Seoul on Dec 18.
“Never did I imagine that it would be declared again 45 years later, in the Korea of 2024.”
Of the 10 attending Cabinet members besides Mr Yoon, most learnt of the plan only upon arriving at the presidential office – many after 8.30pm and some just before the announcement.
Prime Minister Han
Mr Han has repeatedly explained that the reason he convened the Cabinet meeting was not to address procedural flaws in the martial law declaration but to unite Cabinet members to block Mr Yoon from declaring martial law.
“I used the Cabinet meeting to buy as much time as possible to stop the martial law declaration,” Mr Han said during the Assembly’s Dec 13 plenary session.
“There was no systematic or procedural framework for convening the Cabinet meeting,” Mr Han said. “I believe the Cabinet meeting itself had significant procedural and substantive flaws.”
Based on accounts from ministers, it appears that Mr Han and only five others were initially called to Mr Yoon’s office: Foreign Minister Cho, Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho and Justice Minister Park Sung-jae, along with now former interior and safety minister Lee Sang-min and now former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun.
National Intelligence Service director Cho Tae-yong was also present from an early stage, despite not being a Cabinet member.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choi Sang-mok said on Dec 13 that he arrived at the presidential office at 9.55pm on that day, saying: “I didn’t know why I was summoned, so I went in casual clothes.”
Mr Song, who was at the same event as Mr Lee Sang-min until around 5pm that day, and Minister of Health and Welfare Cho Kyoo-hong and Minister of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Start-ups Oh Young-ju were later called individually to the Cabinet meeting.
Among those present in the first batch, Mr Han, Foreign Minister Cho, and Mr Kim Yung-ho have said they expressed their opposition to Mr Yoon’s plans, although the intensity of their opposition seemed to vary from person to person.
However, Mr Lee has suggested that he did not oppose the martial law declaration, saying, “As for whether I agreed or disagreed, it would not be appropriate for me to say” during the Dec 5 session of the Assembly’s Public Administration and Safety Committee.
Justice Minister Park Sung-jae, now suspended after Dec 12 impeachment vote, answered that “I said a lot of things” when asked if he was in favour or opposed Mr Yoon’s marital law decision on the session of the Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee on Dec 9.
During a Dec 11 Assembly session, when asked which Cabinet members had explicitly opposed martial law in front of Mr Yoon on Dec 3, only two raised their hands – Mr Cho and Mr Choi.
Mr Yoon said couldn’t reverse
Mr Cho testified that he arrived at the presidential office around 8.50pm and was ushered into Mr Yoon’s workspace at around 9pm and saw four or five Cabinet members already gathered.
“As soon as I sat down, the President told me he intended to declare martial law and handed me a single sheet of paper. On it were brief instructions outlining the actions the foreign minister was expected to take,” Mr Cho said during the Dec 13 session,
“I was so shocked that I can now only remember the term ‘overseas foreign missions’... It wasn’t very detailed – just a few lines of text – so I can’t recall much. I didn’t even take it with me.”
Mr Cho stated that after he arrived, he led the conversation with Mr Yoon, repeatedly expressing his concerns and strong opposition.
“I repeatedly urged (Mr Yoon) in earnest, in the presence of my fellow Cabinet members, that this was not only a diplomatic issue but a matter so serious it could destroy all the achievements South Korea has built over the past 70 years in an instant, and I asked for reconsideration,” Mr Cho continued to say. “But (Mr Yoon) firmly refused to back down from his insistence that this was a decision based on his own judgment.”
Mr Cho said he followed Mr Yoon as he made his way to deliver the public announcement, saying: “I got up from my seat and pleaded, saying ‘I sincerely ask you to reconsider.’”
“However, (Mr Yoon) said it was an urgent situation where everything had already been concluded, so it was no longer possible to reverse it, and then proceeded to make the announcement.”
Mr Cho explained he had immediately decided to tender his resignation after failing to stop Mr Yoon and this is why he was unable to answer calls from US Ambassador to Korea Philip Goldberg that night.
“From the moment martial law was declared until it was lifted, I spent several hours grappling with a deep inner conflict between my personal belief in resigning as foreign minister and my sense of duty to fulfil the responsibilities of the position.”
Top economic official blindsided
Deputy Prime Minister Choi said he had less than 30 minutes’ notice before Mr Yoon’s televised announcement.
Speaking at the Dec11 Assembly session, he said: “At the time, I joined very late and was unaware of the content, so I didn’t even know it was a meeting. However, after listening to what was said, I was very shocked. It was an unexpected situation.
“I thought it was a highly misguided decision. As the minister overseeing the economy, I anticipated it would have a significant and negative impact on our international credibility and our economy, so I clearly expressed strong opposition.”
Mr Choi also confessed during the Dec 13 Assembly session: “As I was leaving, I made the decision to submit my resignation, but here I am now”.
Mr Choi disclosed that Mr Yoon’s aide handed him a paper after Mr Yoon’s martial law announcement. However, Mr Choi did not check the paper because he rushed into holding a meeting to take measures to stabilise the market but later realised that the paper outlined the actions the economic and finance minister was required to take in the aftermath of the martial law declaration.
“As far as I remember, the only sentence I recall is, ‘In an emergency martial law situation, make sure to secure financial resources, such as liquidity.’”
During Dec 17’s emergency session of the Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee, Deputy Minister of Strategy and Finance Yoon In-dae said on the note Mr Choi received: “I don’t remember exactly, but I recall it mentioning ‘contingency funds related to martial law’ and ‘securing related financial resources’.”
Mr Choi added: “Towards the end of the (ministry’s) meeting (early on Dec 4), the Deputy Minister reminded me, so I glanced at it. It felt like measures based on the premise of martial law, so I dismissed it, thinking, ‘Let’s ignore this,’ and set it aside.”
Legitimacy of decree
Against that backdrop, it is unsurprising that most Cabinet members were neither briefed on the contents of Martial Law Decree No. 1, which took effect on 11pm, nor involved in its approval through signature -- an essential step required before the decree’s enactment.
On Dec 9, the Justice Minister revealed that he had not signed the martial law decree. Similarly, the Health Minister stated that he was unaware that the decree included punitive measures against trainee doctors and other medical professionals who failed to return to work within 48 hours.
Mr Han expressed their belief that an investigation in the future would uncover the reasons why and how martial law was declared despite Cabinet members voicing their opposition to it.
“However, in the end, we failed to stop it, and I feel a deep sense of guilt and profound regret,” Mr Han said on Dec 11. “I am truly suffering a great deal.”
Mr Cho, however, dismissed criticism over the fact that not a single Cabinet member stormed out of the meeting.
“I hold that those who fell short in fulfilling their responsibilities forfeit the right to speak,” he said on Dec 13. “At the time, storming out would have been the easiest choice. However, I want to make it clear that I believed it to be the most cowardly choice, which is why I stayed until the end in an effort to dissuade them.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
