Ex-defense minister’s ‘secret phone’ discovered in joint probe

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Ex-defense minister’s ‘secret phone’ discovered in joint probe

Published: 12 Dec. 2024, 18:58 Updated: 12 Dec. 2024, 19:42

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Protesters take part in a rally demanding the resignation of President Yoon Suk Yeol and the dissolution of his People Power Party, facing off police guarding the entrance to the presidential residence in Hannam-dong in Yongsan District, central Seoul on Thursday. [YONHAP]

Investigations into President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of emergency martial law on Dec. 3 began proceeding in earnest Thursday, with the joint investigation headquarters, launched the previous day, specifying its operations and the police and prosecution carrying out multiple raids and issuing warrants for key figures involved.

On Thursday, the police’s martial law special investigation team together with the Defense Ministry’s investigation unit raided the Defense Ministry and the Capital Defense Command and secured the “secret phone” of former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and server data for the phone. This was the first activity of the joint investigation headquarters while the headquarters is in its beginning stage of specifying operations and internal coordination, police said.

A “secret phone” refers to a secure mobile phone with programs installed to prevent wiretapping and call recording, and it is known that Yoon and Kim used such phones several times while enforcing martial law on Dec 3. The details of the calls made between them are considered crucial evidence.

The joint investigation headquarters decided on its operating methods and dispatched a total of 275 agents to investigate the Dec. 3 martial law incident.

The headquarters, formed Wednesday to “minimize confusion and inefficiency caused by overlapping investigations,” is comprised of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO), the National Office of Investigation (NOI) under the National Police Agency and the Ministry of National Defense.

It held its first meeting at the NOI offices in Seodaemun District Thursday afternoon to discuss specific coordination plans and the scope of its operations.

On Thursday, investigators from the NOI attempted a second raid of the presidential office in Yongsan after they encountered resistance the previous day, meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to induce cooperation with the investigators’ request to relinquish documents related to Yoon’s martial law decree.

The headquarters of the JCS is located next to the presidential office inside the same compound, and the presidential security service controls access to both buildings. The basement of the JCS headquarters is where the short-lived martial law command was located before Yoon rescinded the decree.

Articles 110 and 111 of the Criminal Act prohibit raids without the consent of the person in charge of a location that deals with military or official secrets. Although NOI investigators attempted to enter the presidential compound Wednesday, they found themselves stuck outside the gates after the presidential office denied them entry.

An official from the National Office of Investigation's special martial law investigation unit leaves the presidential office in Yongsan central Seoul on Thursday evening. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The NOI on Thursday applied for arrest warrants for National Police Commissioner Cho Ji-ho and Seoul Police Chief Kim Bong-sik on charges of engaging in missions related to insurrection. The NOI had raided the National Police Agency, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and National Assembly Police Guards to detain Cho and Kim under emergency arrests the previous day, marking the first time police arrested its own chiefs.

Cho and Kim are suspected of mobilizing the National Assembly Guard and other police personnel to control access to and block the National Assembly building, preventing lawmakers from entering the main chamber to vote to lift the martial law on Dec. 3.

The NOI suspects that the statements made by Cho and Kim at a National Assembly hearing earlier this week that they learned about the declaration of martial law through media reports were false, due to the fact that the two chiefs met with Yoon and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun at the presidential safe house in Samcheong-dong at around 7 p.m. on Dec.3, three hours before the declaration of martial law.

In a separate investigation, prosecutors raided the Capital Defense Command headquarters and commander Lee Jin-woo’s residence in Gwanak District, southern Seoul on Thursday in relation to the prosecution’s probe into the circumstances of the Dec. 3 martial law.

The Capital Defense Command had been deployed to the National Assembly on the night of martial law. Prosecutors secured necessary data to confirm the circumstances of the deployment of Capital Defense Command troops to the National Assembly.

This marks the third raid by prosecutors regarding martial law following the raids on the Defense Counterintelligence Command and the Army Special Warfare Command headquarters on Monday.

Having multiple investigative agencies conducting separate probes into the martial law incident caused much confusion among not only the public but also within the agencies conducting the investigations themselves. The new launch of the joint investigation headquarters is expected to reduce confusion and overlap in investigative efforts and increase efficiency.

Police have so far emphasized that they are the only constitutional agency with direct investigative authority for insurrection charges following the 2021 adjustment of investigative authority for the prosecution and police, while the prosecution claims that key figures in the martial law case are also suspected of abuse of power and that they can investigate charges related to this. The CIO has requested the prosecution and police to transfer martial law-related cases over to its office.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]