Probe finds signs of martial law planning in 2024
· UPIMay 4 (Asia Today) -- A special counsel team said Monday it has identified signs that South Korea's military counterintelligence unit may have begun preparing for a declaration of martial law as early as the first half of 2024.
Kim Ji-mi, a deputy special counsel, said during a regular briefing that investigators confirmed indications of early preparations through questioning of officials from the Defense Counterintelligence Command.
She declined to elaborate on who led the preparations or whether specific plans were in place.
The findings differ from earlier conclusions by a separate special counsel team led by Cho Eun-seok, which had investigated allegations of insurrection and foreign conspiracy related to a Dec. 3 emergency martial law declaration. That team charged former President Yoon Suk Yeol as the alleged ringleader, citing a notebook belonging to former intelligence commander Noh Sang-won as evidence that planning began before October 2023.
However, a lower court rejected the evidentiary value of the notebook, ruling that any decision to impose martial law appeared to have been externally expressed no earlier than Dec. 1, 2024. The court said concrete steps toward implementation began only about two days before the declaration.
The court also found that meetings cited by prosecutors - including a presidential residence dinner in December 2023, a series of gatherings with senior military officials through August 2024 and other meetings in Seoul - could not be directly regarded as preparations for martial law.
Separately, the special counsel team said it would impose a one-month pay reduction on an investigator who posted investigation-related materials on social media. The investigator had uploaded photos including a certificate of appointment and a suspect's signed statement, which have since been deleted.
The team said it questioned two suspects and 43 witnesses last week as part of the ongoing investigation.
-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260504010000426