By Ju-min Park and Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea’s impeached prime minister told parliament on Thursday that “everyone” in a hastily-arranged meeting of ministers expressed concerns about President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law plan before he announced it on December 3.
Han Duck-soo, who was briefly acting president after Yoon was impeached and suspended from power on December 14 before being impeached himself, joined acting President Choi Sang-mok in facing parliamentary questioning over their role in the shock martial law decision.
“Everyone objected and expressed worry and raised the problems with this decision to the president,” Han told a special committee, referring to the meeting where Yoon told some cabinet members of his intention to declare martial law.
Martial law lasted only around six hours before Yoon rescinded the order in the face of opposition from parliament, but it sent shockwaves through Asia’s fourth-largest economy and sparked a spiralling political crisis.
Choi, who is also the finance minister, told the committee that the biggest challenges facing the country included people’s livelihoods and changes in the international order.
“There’s the need to stabilise government administration,” Choi said.
Yoon appeared on Thursday at a hearing in his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court, which will decide whether to reinstate him or remove him permanently from office.
Senior military officials testified in court about their role in deploying to parliament when Yoon declared martial law.
“My mission was to blockade the parliament building and the members’ hall, and secure those buildings,” said Army Colonel Kim Hyun-tae, who was leading a team of about 97 special forces soldiers that night.
Kim said that after they entered parliament, his commander, Kwak Jong-geun, ordered him to get inside the main chamber of the building where lawmakers had gathered to lift martial law.
Kim said Kwak, the commander of the Army Special Warfare Command, told him to stop 150 or more “people” from gathering, but his troops were unable to enter the chamber.
He testified that it was unclear whether the order meant lawmakers and he didn’t know the significance at the time.
Parliament needed a quorum of 150 lawmakers to void the martial law decree. In the end 190 of them defied the cordon around the building to vote against Yoon’s decision.
Kwak, who has been suspended and criminally charged over his role in the imposition of martial law, addressed the court later on Thursday. He testified that Yoon had directly ordered Kwak to “drag the personnel” out of the chamber, because the “voting quorum” had not been met at that time.
Looking back, Kwak said he thought the troop deployment was wrong and regretted not being able to say no to his bosses’ order.
“I decided to be truthful because I was worried (people) would say what I said was wrong or right,” he said.
He previously told the parliament that Yoon did not ask him to protect civilians or withdraw his troops, contradicting Yoon’s claims.
Yoon’s lawyers questioned the credibility of Kwak’s statements and said Yoon did not give an order to remove the lawmakers because it would be difficult to achieve.
Yoon has denied any wrongdoing and allegations about attempted arrests of politicians. He has defended the martial law decree as his right as head of the state.
Speaking in court, Yoon said he had called Kwak but only to check the situation and safety on the ground.
“I hope our judges look into this issue based on common sense, whether it makes sense to suddenly call and say drag out or block the quorum between top and bottom in public service,” he said, accusing Kwak of framing him as leading an insurrection.
Yoon is in jail and faces a separate criminal trial on charges of insurrection.
(Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Michael Perry and Kate Mayberry)
