President Yoon Suk-yeol and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyeon reviewed military units together in an armored vehicle at the commemorative ceremony for the 76th anniversary of Armed Forces Day, held at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam on October 1st.
The prosecution investigating President Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law declaration announced on the night of the 9th that it has requested an arrest warrant for former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyeon. This marks the first arrest warrant request related to this incident.
The Martial Law Special Investigation Headquarters, led by Park Se-hyeon, the Seoul High Prosecutor, stated that the warrant accuses former Minister Kim of involvement in a significant insurrection and abuse of power to obstruct the exercise of rights. The charge filed in the warrant claims that Kim worked in collusion with President Yoon to commit insurrection for the purpose of disrupting state order.
Given the details cited in the warrant, it seems likely that President Yoon may be the next focus of the investigation.
Kim Yong-hyeon, a high school senior to President Yoon at Chungam High School, reportedly proposed martial law to President Yoon and played a key role in its execution on the night of the 3rd. He is accused of directing the martial law forces to enter the National Assembly and the National Election Commission, among other actions.
After martial law was lifted by a National Assembly resolution on the morning of the 4th, and following the failure to pass the impeachment motion against President Yoon in the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 7th, Kim voluntarily appeared before the prosecution early on the 8th to face the investigation. At that time, opposition parties and civic groups had already filed complaints against him for insurrection and other charges with the prosecution and police. Kim chose to cooperate with the prosecution’s investigation over the police.
The prosecution conducted an initial six-hour investigation of Kim, then urgently detained him and held him at the Eastern Detention Center. He was re-investigated for over seven hours from 5 p.m. on the 8th. The third investigation began about nine hours later and was concluded slightly past 7:30 p.m. on the 9th, after which the prosecution promptly requested an arrest warrant before the day’s end.