“Jacobi”: The Defense Minister, General Kwak, and the Supreme Court in a High-Dimensional State of Emergency

He apologized for causing panic and annoyance and vowed not to avoid issues of legal and political responsibility in his address on Saturday. He has not made a statement or appeared in public since the allegations were made at the parliament.

Testimonies from officials mobilized to execute martial law, however, contradict Yoon’s claims. Lt. General Kwak told the parliament that he was forced to break down the doors of the parliament and get people out.

Kwak said that Yoon ordered him to “break down the door and grab people out” to prevent the National Assembly from reversing the martial law declaration.

Kwak Jong-keun, commander of the Army Special Warfare Command, who is now suspended from his duties, said the then minister had ordered him to secure control over the National Assembly, the National Election Commission, the main opposition Democratic Party’s headquarters and a media company.

Military and intelligence officials who were deployed to enforce martial law made incriminating statements against the former defense minister and the president during parliamentary sessions.

Kim attempted suicide the night before, but is in a good condition, according to the leader of the Korea Correctional Service.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol: Defending the Decay of Martial Law as an Act of Government and Restoring Order

A special police investigation team on Wednesday arrested the chief of the National Police Agency and the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for charges of insurrection. They are suspected of stopping the lawmakers from entering the parliament.

On Wednesday, South Korean police raided Yoon’s office to search for evidence. The investigators’ entry was blocked by the Presidential Security Service.

Yoon has not publicly commented on the charges. South Korean presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office, but crimes of insurrection and treason are exceptions, according to the Constitution.

Police, prosecutors and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) have deemed President Yoon Suk Yeol as a suspect in an unusual investigation into a sitting president for possible insurrection charges.

South Korean investigators are closing in on the president who temporarily imposed martial law last week because of insurrection charges.

The main opposition Democratic Party, which vowed to introduce impeachment bills against the president every week after the first effort failed due to the ruling party’s boycott, filed a second motion on Thursday. A growing number of ruling party lawmakers now say they will support it.

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president on Thursday defended his decision to declare martial law last week as an act of governance and denied charges of insurrection.

The President said in the address that the parliament is destroying the country’s liberal democratic order and that he had announced the martial law decree because of it.

Pressure quickly built up around Yoon during that time. Military and government officials voiced incriminating allegations against him. There were lots of protesters on the streets. investigators searched his office and expressed willingness to arrest him.

Yoon also asserted that his decision was merely an “emergency measure … in the form of martial law” intended to warn the public about the “current crisis” and restore constitutional order, adding it’s different from past martial-law decrees issued under military dictators.

He said that he sent a small number of troops to the National Assembly to maintain order. He claimed he didn’t order the forces to prevent the lawmakers from entering. “It is evident that the intention wasn’t to disband the parliament or paralyze its functions,” he said.

The People’s Power Party Against Impeachment of the President of an Insurrection: A Statement of Prompt Response to Yoon

Using violence to incapacitate constitutional government bodies constitutes insurrection under South Korea’s criminal law. And a leader of an insurrection can be punished with the death penalty, or life in prison.

Concluding his speech, Yoon vowed to “proudly stand up to” impeachment and investigation and to not avoid legal or political responsibility related to his decision.

Han Dong-hoon, the leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), who had criticized the martial law decree but shied away from urging Yoon’s impeachment, reversed his position following the speech. Han said Yoon “practically confessed to an insurrection” and called on the party’s ethics committee to expel the president from the party.

But PPP’s newly elected floor leader Kweon Seong-dong, who has been more supportive of the Yoon administration than Han, said the party line is still against impeaching Yoon.