South Korea’s Yoon ignored Cabinet opposition to martial law: Prosecutors
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South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into political chaos on Dec 3 with a bungled martial law declaration.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SEOUL – South Korea’s suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol ignored the objections of key Cabinet ministers before his failed bid to impose martial law
He plunged the country into political chaos on Dec 3 with the bungled martial law declaration and has since been holed up in his residence, surrounded by hundreds of security officers resisting efforts to arrest him.
The full 83-page prosecution report to indict former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun said the country’s then Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Finance Minister all expressed reservations on the night of the decision.
They made their concerns clear about the economic and diplomatic fallout in a Cabinet meeting, which Mr Yoon called before his short-lived power grab.
“The economy would face severe difficulties, and I fear a decline in international credibility,” then Prime Minister Han Duck-soo told Mr Yoon, according to the report seen by AFP.
Mr Han became acting president after Mr Yoon was stripped of his duties, but was later also impeached by opposition MPs who argued that he refused demands to complete Mr Yoon’s impeachment process and bring him to justice.
Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul reportedly said martial law would have “diplomatic repercussions but also destroy the achievements South Korea has built over the past 70 years”.
Acting President Choi Sang-mok, who was then Finance Minister, argued that the martial law decision would have “devastating effects on the economy and the country’s credibility”.
Despite the objections, Mr Yoon said “there is no turning back”, claiming that the opposition – which won a landslide in April’s parliamentary election – would lead the country to collapse.
“Neither the economy nor diplomacy will function,” he reportedly said.
An earlier summary of the report provided to the media in December revealed that Mr Yoon authorised the military to fire their weapons to enter Parliament during the failed bid.
The suspended President’s lawyer Yoon Kab-keun dismissed the prosecutors’ report.
He told AFP the indictment report alone does not constitute an insurrection and “it doesn’t align legally, and there’s no evidence either”.
Mr Yoon remains under investigation on charges of insurrection and faces arrest, prison or, at worst, the death penalty.
The Constitutional Court has marked Jan 14 for the start of Mr Yoon’s impeachment trial which, if he does not attend, would continue in his absence.
The court may take the prosecutors’ report on Mr Kim – one of the first indicted over the martial law bid – into consideration. AFP
