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  • February 11, 2025
Ex-defense chief in South Korea tried to commit suicide…

Ex-defense chief in South Korea tried to commit suicide…

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea previous Minister of Defense was stopped from committing suicide while in custody due to last week’s martial law, officials said Wednesday, as President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office resisted a police attempt to search the compound.

The main liberal opposition party, the Democratic Party, plans to file a new motion to oust Yoon for his statement of December 3 who imposed martial law in South Korea for the first time in more than forty years. The first impeachment attempt against Yoon last Saturday failed after ruling party lawmakers boycotted the vote. The party said it plans to introduce the new motion on Thursday in order to organize a vote on Saturday.

Yoon’s ill-conceived power grab has paralyzed South Korean politics, frozen foreign policy and thrown financial markets into turmoil. On Wednesday, rival North Korean state media first reported the unrest across the border, but the country showed no suspicious activity.

Shin Yong Hae, commissioner general of the Korea Correctional Service, told lawmakers that former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun tried to commit suicide the previous night at a detention center in Seoul. He said correctional officers restrained him and he was in stable condition.

Kim was arrested early Wednesday after a Seoul court approved an arrest warrant for him on charges of playing a key role in an uprising and committing abuse of power. Kim became the first person to be formally arrested under the martial law decree.

Kim, one of Yoon’s closest associates, is accused of recommending martial law to Yoon and sending troops to the National Assembly to prevent lawmakers from voting on it. Enough lawmakers eventually managed to force their way into a parliament chamber and unanimously rejected Yoon’s decree, forcing the cabinet to do so lift it up before daybreak on December 4.

Kim said in a statement on Tuesday that he “deeply apologizes for causing great concern” to the public. He said all responsibility for imposing martial law lies with him and appealed for leniency for the soldiers deployed to enforce the law.

Prosecutors have 20 days to determine whether to charge Kim.

Yoon’s office hinders the search for the presidential complex

Later Wednesday, police arrested Commissioner General Cho Ji Ho and Kim Bong-sik, chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police. They were accused of deploying police forces in parliament to prevent lawmakers from voting.

The investigators’ main focus is to find out whether Yoon, Kim and others involved in imposing martial law committed rebellion. A conviction on charges of rebellion carries the maximum penalty of death.

South Korean police said they sent officers on Wednesday to search Yoon’s office for evidence related to the imposition of martial law. But investigators were unable to enter the office on Wednesday evening, about six hours after their arrival, senior police officer Lee Ho-young said in parliament.

Some observers previously said the presidential security service was unlikely to allow searches of Yoon’s office, citing a law that bans searches of sites containing state secrets without permission from those in charge of those areas.

Yoon apologized Saturday for the martial law decree and said he will not avoid legal or political responsibility for it. He said he would leave it to his party to chart a course through the political turmoil in the country, “including matters related to my term of office.”

The leader of Yoon’s ruling party later vowed to arrange the president’s stable departure, saying the party will coordinate state affairs with Cabinet members and Yoon will be sidelined.

The comments were criticized as unrealistic and unconstitutional, but raised widespread questions about who is in charge of South Korea and its military at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea. The Justice Ministry banned Yoon from leaving the country on Tuesday because he was under investigation.

Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho reiterated on Wednesday that Yoon will remain in charge of the military. But Yoon has not been involved in any major official activities since the lifting of martial law, except for accepting resignation offers from officials involved in the martial law case and appointing the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the country.

A view from North Korea

An article by the North’s state news agency on Wednesday reported on the South Korean political chaos and protests caused by Yoon’s martial law decree. The report mainly attempted to explain events in South Korea, although it called Yoon “a traitor” and his military “gangsters.”

Many experts say North Korea is susceptible to the domestic spread of news of major anti-government protests abroad because its own people do not have official access to international news and could be influenced by such events. The US State Department said Monday that the US-South Korea alliance remains “iron-clad” and that Washington is committed to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.

In his martial law announcement, conservative Yoon stressed the need to rebuild the country by eliminating “shameless North Korean followers and anti-state forces,” a reference to his liberal rivals who control parliament. Since taking office in 2022, Yoon has had near-constant friction with the Democratic Party, who introduced motions to oust some of its top officials and launched a political offensive over scandals involving Yoon and his wife.

Opposition parties and many experts say the martial law decree was unconstitutional. They say that by law a president can only declare martial law in times of war or similar emergencies, but South Korea was not in such a dire situation. They argue that deploying troops to seal the National Assembly and suspend its political activities amounts to rebellion because the constitution does not allow a president to use the military to suspend parliament in any situation.

If Yoon is impeached, his presidential powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether his powers should be restored or he should be removed from office. If he is removed from office, new presidential elections will be necessary.