Yoon impeachment trial witnesses to testify on election fraud, martial law orders
Published: 09 Feb. 2025, 17:21
Updated: 09 Feb. 2025, 18:09
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- MICHAEL LEE
- [email protected]
![Former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, left, and National Election Commission Secretary General Kim Yong-bin attend a hearing at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Feb. 4. Both are due to appear as witnesses during the seventh hearing of President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court on Feb. 11. [NEWS11]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/02/09/93b9a0d7-0955-4d63-a64d-4a0a15b158fa.jpg)
Former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, left, and National Election Commission Secretary General Kim Yong-bin attend a hearing at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Feb. 4. Both are due to appear as witnesses during the seventh hearing of President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court on Feb. 11. [NEWS11]
Current and former officials are due to testify about suspicions of electoral fraud during the seventh and eighth hearings of President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial, which are scheduled to take place at the Constitutional Court on Tuesday and Thursday.
Yoon’s lawyers have repeatedly alleged that the president was partially motivated to declare martial law and try to suspend the National Assembly after the liberal Democratic Party (DP) increased its parliamentary majority in the general election last year, which he and others have claimed was due to vote tampering.
The first official scheduled to testify on the seventh hearing on Tuesday is former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, followed by National Security Adviser Shin Won-shik, former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Deputy Director Baek Jong-wook and National Election Commission (NEC) Secretary General Kim Yong-bin.
Cross-examination of Lee is due to begin at 10:30 a.m., with Shin, Baek and Kim due to be questioned in order at 90-minute intervals beginning at 2 p.m.
As witnesses submitted to the court by the president’s lawyers, Lee and Shin are expected to testify in favor of Yoon.
Both Yoon’s team and the National Assembly’s impeachment investigation committee, which is acting as the prosecution in the trial, are likely to question Lee about the Dec. 3 Cabinet meeting that took place just before the president declared martial law.
The committee is further expected to ask Lee whether the president ordered state utility companies to cut electricity and water to media companies.
Shin, on the other hand, is likely to be questioned as to whether plans to declare martial law were drawn up during his tenure as Yoon’s defense minister, which ended in September last year.
Questioning of Kim and Baek is likely to focus on claims by Yoon and his lawyers that numerous problems were discovered during an inspection of the NEC’s equipment in October 2023, which the president said was the driving factor behind his decision to send troops inside three of the commission’s offices when he declared martial law.
Witnesses scheduled to take the stand at the eighth hearing of the president impeachment trial on Thursday include NIS Director Cho Tae-yong, former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Kim Bong-sik, National Police Agency (NPA) Commissioner Cho Ji-ho and Cho Sung-hyun, chief of the 1st Guard of the Army’s Capital Defense Command.
The NIS director and former Commissioner Kim were registered as witnesses by Yoon’s defense team, while the NPA commissioner was registered by the National Assembly committee.
![National Police Agency Commissioner Cho Ji-ho speaks before the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Dec. 9, 2024. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/02/09/d1d88c3c-6f9e-4c69-b07f-f240193fa7b1.jpg)
National Police Agency Commissioner Cho Ji-ho speaks before the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Dec. 9, 2024. [YONHAP]
The NPA commissioner is expected to be questioned by both sides about allegations that Yoon ordered the arrest of several key politicians as part of his martial law decree.
The court’s justices are expected to lead questioning of the witnesses during both hearings on Tuesday and Thursday.
The Constitutional Court has not yet scheduled more hearings after Thursday, but the possibility remains open that it could hold more oral arguments before deciding to conclude Yoon’s impeachment trial.
BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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