Special prosecutor indicts Yoon on perjury in trial

The special prosecutor for the insurrection investigation, led by Cho Eun-seok, filed an additional indictment on December 4 against former President Yoon Suk-yeol on a perjury charge. The investigative team argued that Yoon’s testimony last month at the trial of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, in which he said he convened a Cabinet meeting before declaring martial law based on a recommendation from former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, was not true.

During a briefing, Deputy Special Prosecutor Park Ji-young said that Yoon’s statement in court, claiming he had already planned to hold the Cabinet meeting before Han made the proposal, was false. Yoon testified on November 19 that he remembered receiving a report from Kim at the presidential residence that the Cabinet needed to convene and added that it was natural for a Cabinet meeting to be held in the process of proclaiming martial law.

This contradicts the special prosecutor’s findings that Yoon convened what it described as an improvised Cabinet meeting only after receiving Han’s recommendation and summoning six additional Cabinet members. The special prosecutor indicted Han on charges of aiding insurrection, arguing that he sought to create the appearance of legal procedure by recommending the Cabinet meeting. During Han’s trial, Yoon rejected the special prosecutor’s line of questioning on this basis, asking, “Were the Cabinet members puppets brought in only to provide the appearance?”

After reviewing closed-circuit television footage and other evidence, the special prosecutor reported that at 8:30 p.m. on December 3 last year, Yoon first summoned Han and six other Cabinet members to the presidential office. Beginning at 9:14 p.m., he then called in six additional ministers through presidential staff. The investigative team noted that if Yoon had intended to convene a Cabinet meeting from the start, there would have been no reason to call only six members first, which fell short of the quorum of 11 required for a valid vote. A special prosecutor official said Yoon initially planned to declare martial law at 10 p.m., but the declaration was delayed to 10:27 p.m. because the Cabinet meeting was convened following Han’s proposal.

With just 10 days remaining before the investigation period ends, the special prosecutor also indicted Kang Ui-gu, former secretary to the president, on charges of drafting the martial law proclamation issued after the declaration without legal authority. Three senior officials at the Presidential Security Service, including former deputy director Kim Sung-hoon, were separately indicted for allegedly obstructing Yoon’s arrest. Lee Eun-woo, former president of the Korea Policy Broadcasting Institute, was also charged with abuse of power for ordering the deletion of news reports critical of the martial law declaration.


고도예 yea@donga.com