This is the first time that the sitting commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency has been arrested
Cho Ji-ho, the commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency (left); Kim Bong-sik, the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. (Yonhap)
Korean police investigating the declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 arrested the heads of the national and Seoul police agencies on suspicions of participating in an insurrection. This is the first time the sitting commissioner general of Korea’s national police has been arrested.The special squad responsible for investigating the martial law declaration, which was established under the Korean National Police Agency’s (KNPA) National Office of Investigation, announced that officers had placed both National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho Ji-ho and Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Kim Bong-sik under emergency arrest on insurrection charges at 3:49 am on Wednesday.Cho had appeared for questioning at the KNPA’s Mapo office at 4 pm on Tuesday, and Kim had done the same at the KNPA’s state investigative headquarters in Seoul’s Seodaemun District at 5:30 pm. The special investigative squad plans to request that the court issue a detention warrant for the two men after additional questioning. Cho and Kim are charged with mobilizing police officers to block access to the National Assembly after martial law was declared on Dec. 3. The police locked down the National Assembly at 11:37 pm, after the official decree went out, and maintained the lockdown for 128 minutes.The police had temporarily blockaded the National Assembly at 10:46 pm, immediately after President Yoon Suk-yeol announced he was declaring martial law, ostensibly to prevent any incidents. After 20 minutes, they let National Assembly lawmakers and staff into the building, but completely blocked off access to the National Assembly 31 minutes later in accordance with the official martial law decree.The police blockade presented difficulties for Korean lawmakers seeking to assemble at the National Assembly building to vote on a binding resolution calling off the martial law declaration. Some lawmakers managed to slip over the wall, avoiding police surveillance, but others were unable to join the vote.Even after the National Assembly passed a resolution ending martial law, the police maintained the lockdown on the National Assembly for about 44 minutes. Then at 1:45 am, they reopened the gates, but only for National Assembly lawmakers and staff.By Lee Ji-hye, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
