Former 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 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 Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.
The team said Yoon staged an insurrection through his martial law declaration in order to remove his political opponents and monopolize 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.
