Yoon’s lawyers, Assembly wrangle over legitimacy of martial law decree during 2nd hearing

The Constitutional Court of Korea justices are presiding over the impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)
The Constitutional Court of Korea justices are presiding over the impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul on Thursday. (Yonhap)

The Constitutional Court of Korea on Thursday added three more hearings to President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial related to his Dec. 3 martial law attempt, and announced the selected witnesses.

Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who is currently behind bars charged with engaging in an alleged insurrection attempt, will be examined as a witness on Feb. 6 at 2 p.m., justices said during the second hearing held Thursday.

Other witnesses include Cho Ji-ho, commissioner of the Korean National Police Agency; Kwak Jong-geun, commander of the Army’s Special Warfare Command; Lee Jin-woo, commander of the Capital Defense Command; Hong Jang-won, the first deputy director of the National Intelligence Service and Yeo In-hyung, chief of the Defense Counterintelligence Command.

The justices also decided to adopt surveillance footage of the National Assembly, the National Election Commission and the official residence of the speaker of the National Assembly as evidence. They will also conduct fact-checking of arguments made by Yoon's legal representatives regarding April 10 election fraud, by going over the list of Chinese nationals affiliated with the building.

Originally, the court had planned to hold five rounds of hearings every Tuesday and Thursday through Feb. 5. But it will add three more rounds on Feb. 6, 11, 13 with hearings starting at 10 a.m. and lasting a full day.

Suspended and now arrested Yoon’s second hearing was held without his attendance but with his legal representatives trying hard to justify his declaration of martial law as "legal."

The second hearing marked the first time in the trial that Yoon’s side formally articulated its stance on key issues, emphasizing the context and circumstances surrounding Yoon's Dec. 3 attempt to impose military rule.

Yoon’s first hearing on Tuesday ended after a little more than four minutes because of his absence, a decision Yoon made based on his concern that investigators might arrest him using a court-ordered warrant, according to his lawyers.

Rep. Jung Chung-rae (fourth from left), chair of the National Assembly’s Legislative and Judiciary Committee, speaks to reporters prior to attending the second hearing for suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial held at the Constitutional Court of Korea in Jongno-gu, Seoul, Thursday. (Yonhap)
Rep. Jung Chung-rae (fourth from left), chair of the National Assembly’s Legislative and Judiciary Committee, speaks to reporters prior to attending the second hearing for suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment trial held at the Constitutional Court of Korea in Jongno-gu, Seoul, Thursday. (Yonhap)

Thursday’s hearing began with the National Assembly’s Impeachment Committee listing the reasons why Yoon must be removed from office.

They outlined five constitutional violations as grounds for confirming Yoon's impeachment: Yoon's declaration of martial law, his ordering the obstruction of parliamentary activities through the deployment of military and police forces, his ordering of a warrantless raid of the National Election Commission, his issuance of Martial Law Decree No. 1, and his orders to arrest and detain a list of prominent political figures and outspoken critics.

Rep. Jung Chung-rae, chair of the National Assembly’s Legislative and Judiciary Committee, accused Yoon of violating the Constitution and disrupting national order through his martial law declaration.

"The Constitution states that the sovereignty of the Republic of Korea resides with the people, and all state authority emanates from the people. And power, entrusted by the people, cannot be unconstitutionally or unlawfully exercised over the people," Jung told the justices, quoting from the Constitution Article 1, Clause 2, during his argument.

"(For Yoon,) there isn't even a shred of will to uphold the Constitution. There's suspicion that, if reinstated, he might attempt to declare martial law a second time."

Bae Bo-yoon, Yoon's legal representative, enters the Constitutional Court of Korea in Jongno-gu, Seoul, to attend the second hearing of Yoon's impeachment trial Thursday. (Yonhap)
Bae Bo-yoon, Yoon's legal representative, enters the Constitutional Court of Korea in Jongno-gu, Seoul, to attend the second hearing of Yoon's impeachment trial Thursday. (Yonhap)

Yoon’s legal team contested the legality of the impeachment process itself.

"The Republic of Korea's Constitution has been destroyed," Yoon's newly added legal representative, Cho Dae-hyun, who is also a former Constitutional Court Justice, told justices, in a trembling voice.

"The majority in the National Assembly unlawfully pushed for impeachment by accusing the president of insurrection and threatened to arrest him. As a result, the president could not attend the first hearing at the Constitutional Court. Detained in a detention center, he ultimately couldn’t appear at the second hearing today either," Cho said.

Yoon's other lawyer, Bae Jin-han, argued that Yoon's declaration of martial law was "peaceful."

"No damage was done to the country. Who caused the conflict? Is that our responsibility? This martial law was a peaceful martial law. ... and then, two hours after declaring martial law, the National Assembly proclaimed the lifting of martial law. Where was this supposed insurrection? Is such an insurrection even possible? The president has also mentioned this hundreds of times," Bae told justices.

He also spent about 20 minutes explaining claims of fraud in the April 10 legislative election last year, such as attempts by China and North Korea to hack the election commission and insert fake ballots, as well as arguments that early voting cannot be trusted due to alleged mismanagement of the election system by the National Election Commission.

"We will present you with evidence during the evidence examination process," Bae told the justices. "I am certain that it's somehow connected with China," he added, explaining why it was deemed necessary to raid the NEC under martial law.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the court rejected Yoon’s request to reschedule the second hearing, citing “no sufficient reason" to do so.

Court press officer Cheon Jae-yeon told reporters that all eight justices discussed the matter and decided to dismiss Yoon's request to reschedule.

Yoon’s lawyers, a day earlier, had submitted the postponement request following Yoon’s arrest, arguing that proceeding with the hearing while he is in custody would deprive him of his right to attend the trial.

But the court said Thursday that they had not received any information or indication from Yoon’s side so far on concretely when and how Yoon plans to attend the hearing.

Initially, his team repeatedly stressed that Yoon would appear in court “at an appropriate time” to defend himself and explain the reasons for his actions.

According to Article 52 of the Constitutional Court Act, defendants are not required to appear in court for their hearings. If a defendant decides not to attend more than once, the court will proceed with their trial in their absence.

On Thursday, the court also confirmed that Yoon’s legal representatives had appointed additional representatives — former Constitutional Court Justice Cho Dae-hyun and former Prosecutor General Gong Sang-myeong — both of whom served during the Roh Moo-hyun administration. This brings the total number of Yoon’s legal representatives to 14.

The court also added that the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office submitted additional investigation-related documents on Wednesday afternoon.