“I never saw a proclamation with president’s signature,” says former JCS martial law chief

At the fourth hearing of the National Assembly’s Special Committee on the National Investigation into the Allegations of Insurrection through the Proclamation of Martial Law by the Yoon Suk-yeol Administration, held on Friday, testimony was given indicating procedural flaws in the drafting process of the martial law proclamation issued during the Dec 3 martial law.

Kwon Young-hwan, former chief of the Martial Law Division at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) (Colonel), said at the National Assembly, “To draft a proclamation, a martial law declaration with the president’s signature must be in place. As the JCS Martial Law Division Chief at the time, responsible for support duties, the fact is that I never saw the first martial law proclamation (official notice) with the president’s signature.”

According to the JCS Martial Law Operations Manual’s ‘Procedures for Handling Martial Law Documents,’ the JCS Martial Law Division is supposed to receive the official notice, signed by the president, from the Ministry of National Defense. The division then coordinates with relevant departments such as the Ministry of Justice, obtains approval from the Martial Law Commander, and finally secures the president’s final authorization before issuing the notice. However, according to former Chief Kwon, these preliminary procedures were not properly followed when martial law was declared. He said, “I never saw the signed proclamation (official notice), but toward the end of the martial law period, I did see an unsigned copy from another source.”


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