The former defense minister voluntarily appeared for questioning at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.
South Korea’s former defense minister, who resigned this week over his role in the president’s martial law declaration, has been arrested.
According to local media reports, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun voluntarily appeared for questioning at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office at 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 8.
The prosecutor’s office, alongside law enforcement agencies, is conducting multiple investigations into treason and other potential charges, directed at those involved in the short-lived martial law decree, which has drawn international attention to the years-long political crisis brewing in South Korea, and to the anxiety that the declaration has caused South Koreans.
Police said 120 personnel are now investigating multiple complaints that accuse South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, 63, and aides of abuse of power in connection with the decree that Yoon announced on Dec. 3. The prosecutor’s office formed a special investigation unit on Dec. 6 to prosecute the cases.
Upon presenting himself at the unit’s headquarters, Kim had his phone confiscated and was then arrested on charges of insurrection, abuse of authority, and obstructing others from exercising their rights, media reported.
Kim was one among the group of advisers who encouraged Yoon to declare martial law on Dec. 3 at 9 p.m. local time. The defense minister was also responsible for the decision to deploy armed troops to the National Assembly to enforce the declaration.
The prosecutor’s office on Dec. 8 also announced that it had opened a criminal case that names Yoon as a suspect of investigation in response to his martial law declaration.
Anti-State Forces
Yoon, in announcing his rare action, said he decided on the emergency measure to combat “anti-state forces” within South Korea.
“The lives of the people are of no concern, and state affairs are in a paralyzed state solely due to impeachments, special prosecutors, and the opposition party leader’s shield [against prosecution],” Yoon said of their actions within South Korea’s unicameral government.
He added that the anti-state forces were “trampling on the constitutional order” by acting as a dictatorship, working to paralyze the government’s budget “as a tool for political agitation” and pushing to impeach 22 government officials, including prosecutors.
“Attempts to impeach the minister of national defense are paralyzing the executive branch as well,” he said.
The pro-U.S. agenda of the Yoon administration has sought a stronger stance against appeasing North Korea as well as the Chinese communist regime, which is enjoying expanded influence in South Korean politics after years of efforts to expand its soft power in the country.
Yoon lifted the six-hour-old martial law decree early on Dec. 4, shortly after 190 opposition lawmakers gathered at Parliament to unanimously vote against it. Opposition parties hold 192 seats in South Korea’s 300-seat National Assembly, with Yoon’s right-leaning People Power Party (PPP) holding the remaining 108 seats.
The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), holds a majority of 170 seats, smaller parties hold 21 seats, and Speaker Woo Won-shik, who was affiliated with the DPK before his speakership, holds the remaining seat.
The head of the DPK, Lee Jae-myung, 60, narrowly lost the presidential election to Yoon in 2022. Lee is facing a suspended one-year prison sentence on charges of making false claims about development projects during his presidential campaign. He has denied the charges and said he will appeal.
He is also facing other criminal charges that he claims are politically motivated, including allegations that he pressured a local businessman to send $8 million in illegal payments to North Korea during his time as Gyeonggi governor as he tried to set up a visit that never materialized.
Crisis of Governance Continues
All of Yoon’s cabinet members offered to resign over the unpopular emergency action on Dec. 4. Yoon on Dec. 5 accepted the resignation of Kim Yong-hyun, whom he replaced as defense minister with Choi Byung Hyuk, a retired four-star general who was serving as South Korea’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
On the morning of Dec. 7, Yoon apologized for causing “anxiety and inconvenience to the citizens” with the order in an address ahead of an impeachment vote.
He said he accepts accountability for his actions and pledged to never again invoke martial law, but he did not resign, instead handing power over to his party to navigate the path forward.
“As for the stability of state affairs, including my remaining term, I will leave it to my party. Moving forward, the party and the government will jointly take responsibility for managing state affairs,” he said. “Once again, I bow my head and apologize for causing concern to the citizens.”
How the PPP will choose to proceed remains to be seen, as ongoing political infighting between various factions within the party continues to intensify.
According to media reports, PPP chair Han Dong-hoon rallied in a party meeting to vote in favor of the opposition’s efforts to impeach Yoon after learning that he was among lawmakers whom Yoon had allegedly sought to arrest under martial law. However, his tone changed on Dec. 7 following Yoon’s public statement, although he continues to call for Yoon to be suspended.
Han Dong-hoon announced in a joint statement with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Dec. 8 that the party had agreed that Yoon would step back from state affairs. Han Dong-hoon said party leadership would continue to pursue Yoon’s “early resignation” and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said the party would now return its focus to passing its key budget initiatives that the opposition seeks to cut by more than 4 trillion won (about $2.81 billion) by slashing funds for the president’s National Security Office, the prosecution, the police, the state audit agency, and gas and oil exploration in the East Sea.
The budget has faced delays, with the opposition pursuing various impeachment actions, including attempts to impeach the prosecutors who decided not to indict First Lady Kim Keon Hee in a case involving alleged stock manipulation, alongside the budget negotiations.
“This will inevitably disrupt the government’s support plans for people’s livelihoods and regional economies that are still struggling,” Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said on Dec. 2.
Yoon survived the attempt to impeach him on Dec. 7, when the largely party-line vote fell just five votes short of the 200 needed to reach the two-thirds majority quorum. Eight members of Yoon’s PPP would have had to support the bill for it to pass, and most PPP lawmakers walked out of the chamber to protest the impeachment attempt.
The opposition has said it will continue its efforts to win the votes needed to impeach Yoon.
“We will repeatedly float [the impeachment motion until it is passed],” main opposition leader and Democratic Party Rep. Lee Jae-myung said in a news briefing. The next attempt could come as soon as Dec. 11, Democratic Party Floor Leader Park Chan-dae told the Korean Herald.
Other members of Yoon’s party have expressed sympathy for the dilemma facing the president and pledged their support for his efforts to prevent South Korea from “falling into the abyss of national ruin.”
Former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said the National Assembly had “become a dictatorship of the opposition party” and that Yoon’s actions should be seen as a legitimate move to counter a pro-North Korean left wing.
“The birth of a pro-North Korea leftist giant opposition party through election interference by anti-state forces is the root of all this trouble,” another former lawmaker Min Kyung-wook said.
If an impeachment is successful, it has to be reviewed by South Korea’s Constitutional Court for factual seriousness and legal validity. If upheld, a new election would be triggered within 60 days.
Yoon, before his 2022 election, was South Korea’s chief prosecutor. He led the investigation that saw South Korea’s only successful presidential impeachment of then-leader Park Geun-hye in December 2016 on charges of influence-peddling.
The last time that martial law was ordered in South Korea was more than 40 years ago in 1979 when then-Prime Minister Choi Kyu-hah imposed a period of military rule following the assassination of President Park Chung-hee, who had seized power in a coup through military force in 1961. Former President Park Geun-hye is Park Chung-hee’s daughter.
After a period of power struggle between military leaders, democracy was restored in 1988, and South Korea has been relatively stable since.
Yoon’s support in national polls was waning before the failed decree, hovering at about 20 percent. But following the martial law decree, his popularity is now at a record low of 13 percent—a drop of 6 percentage points in one week, according to the latest poll by Gallup, conducted on 1,001 adults from Dec. 3 to Dec. 5.
The value of the South Korean won also tumbled this week following the news. Days earlier, South Korea’s central bank had lowered its economic growth projection for the country.
Katabella Roberts, Ryan Morgan, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.