Yoon unlikely to appear for questioning over martial law on Christmas, lawyer says

Home > National > Politics

Yoon unlikely to appear for questioning over martial law on Christmas, lawyer says

Published: 24 Dec. 2024, 15:41 Updated: 24 Dec. 2024, 17:27

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Police stand on guard outside President Yoon Suk Yeol's official residence in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Dec. 24. A video of the president is broadcast on an outdoor screen mounted by his supporters behind the police officers, who were there to maintain a distance between dueling rallies for and against his impeachment. [YONHAP]

President Yoon Suk Yeol is unlikely to appear on Christmas Day for questioning by the investigative team in charge of the probe into his short-lived declaration of martial law, his lawyer said Tuesday.

The joint investigative headquarters, which is an interagency task force run by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) in tandem with the National Police Agency and Defense Ministry, summoned Yoon to appear for questioning on Wednesday regarding allegations that he committed treason and insurrection by imposing martial law on Dec. 3.

Yoon’s lawyer and longtime acquaintance Seok Dong-hyeon said the president plans to focus on impeachment proceedings at the Constitutional Court, adding that Yoon intends to issue a public statement on his position after the holiday.

“We think it is unlikely that he will be able to attend tomorrow,” Seok told reporters.

Seok said little by way of explanation regarding the president’s inability to appear for questioning, except that “the circumstances are not yet right.”

The lawyer added the president “thinks that the Constitutional Court’s impeachment trial procedure should take priority [over the CIO-led investigation] because the National Assembly filed the impeachment motion.”

The CIO’s joint task force has sent summons to Yoon twice as part of its probe into his martial law decree.

Yoon did not comply with the first summons to submit himself for questioning on Dec. 18.

Seok further argued that “an open impeachment trial overseen by the Constitutional Court’s justices should serve as the main stage of public debate,” noting that President Park Geun-hye did not face a criminal investigation until after the Constitutional Court had upheld her impeachment in 2017.

The Constitutional Court’s justices are set to hold a meeting to discuss the impeachment case against Yoon on Thursday, a day before the court holds its first formal pretrial conference, according to court spokesperson Lee Jin on Tuesday.

Lee also said that the court had not received any additional documents from either Yoon or the National Assembly as of Tuesday morning.

During the pretrial conference, the court’s justices are expected to sort through the reasons given by the National Assembly for pursuing Yoon’s impeachment and set criteria for evidence to be presented.

Meanwhile, a former military official who is accused of involvement in Yoon’s short-lived imposition of martial law was handed to the prosecution on Tuesday for further investigation.

Former Defense Intelligence Command chief Noh Sang-won, second from left, is approached for comment by reporters while leaving the Seoul Seobu Police Precinct in Eunpyeong District, western Seoul, to be handed to prosecutors on Dec. 24. [YONHAP]

Noh Sang-won, who served as chief of the Defense Intelligence Command and director of the Army Intelligence School until 2018, has been accused of trying to carry out an insurrection and abusing his powers.

He was handed over to the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office by police, who have held him since Dec. 15.

Reporters from JTBC and the JoongAng Ilbo who visited Noh’s residence in Ansan, Gyeonggi, last week found signs that he has been working as a shaman since being dishonorably discharged from the military for sexual assault in 2018.

Noh’s residence is located 1.4 kilometers (0.9 miles) from the much-derided Lotteria hamburger joint where military brass, including Noh, Defense Intelligence Command chief Moon Sang-ho and others, allegedly met on Dec. 1 to discuss how they should carry out Yoon’s plan to declare martial law two days later.

Police said Monday that they found a note that mentions “inducing North Korea’s provocation at the Northern Limit Line [NLL]” inside Noh’s pocketbook.

Noh’s palm-sized notebook had 60 to 70 pages, and many of its written memos were related to martial law, according to an officer from the National Office of Investigation (NOI) under the National Police Agency.

The diary was confiscated from Noh’s residence in Ansan during a police search and seizure operation on Dec. 15.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]