Former commander arrested for alleged martial law plot

Defense

Published: 29 Mar. 2023, 17:49

Former commander arrested for alleged martial law plot

Cho Hyun-chun, former chief of the now-abolished Defense Security Command (DSC), is taken into custody by officials from the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office upon his arrival at 6:30 a.m. at Incheon International Airport on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Prosecutors on Wednesday detained a military official who was allegedly behind a 2017 plan to impose martial law to suppress mass protests calling for the impeachment of then-President Park Geun-hye.

Cho Hyun-chun, former chief of the now-abolished Defense Security Command (DSC), was taken into custody by officials from the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office upon his arrival at 6:30 a.m. at Incheon International Airport from Atlanta, Georgia, more than five years after he left for the United States.

According to prosecutors, Cho directed a task force he formed in February 2017 to draw up a plan to forcibly suppress protests calling for Park’s removal from office by illegally declaring martial law.

The plan was reported to then-Defense Minister Han Min-koo before the Constitutional Court made a ruling removing Park from office.

Cho retired from his post in September 2017 and departed for the United States three months later as the probe into the planned crackdown widened.

Although a joint military-civilian investigation obtained an indictment against Cho in September the following year, it was suspended two months later as his movements following his departure remained unknown.

Cho declared in September last year that he would return to Korea to cooperate with the investigation.

Speaking to reporters at the airport, Cho said, “I came back to help reveal the truth behind the martial law draft as the person responsible for it and take responsibility if I have any,” adding that he hoped to “clarify the true nature of the martial law draft through the prosecutors’ investigation and alleviate people’s suspicions.”

In response to a reporter’s question about why he had not come back to Korea for over five years, Cho said he simply delayed his return with no intention to flee.

Others involved in the case have thus far been acquitted or denied involvement in a conspiracy to suppress the protests by declaring martial law.

Soh Gang-won, a former DSC chief of staff, and another DSC officer Gi Woo-jin were acquitted by a military court in December 2019 of charges that they drafted a crackdown plan on Cho’s orders.

Soh and Gi are currently undergoing an appeals trial in a civilian court.

Former Defense Minister Han and former National Security Director Kim Kwan-jin have also denied involvement in the drafting of plans to declare martial law at the heights of the protests against Park.

The Center for Military Human Rights, an activist group that first raised suspicions about the existence of a martial law draft, released a statement Wednesday urging prosecutors to seek a warrant for Cho’s arrest.

“Former Commander Cho made a mockery of investigative authorities by fleeing abroad for five years. A strong investigation of the main suspect behind this seditious conspiracy is necessary,” the group said.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]