Kwak says he decided to pull troops out of Assembly, not president or ex-defense minister
The then-commander of the South Korean military's special forces testified at the Constitutional Court on Thursday that President Yoon Suk Yeol had ordered him to drag out the lawmakers from the National Assembly on the night of Yoon's sudden Dec. 3 martial law declaration, contradicting the president’s claim.
Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-geun, then-head of the Army Special Warfare Command, said he was told by Yoon to “quickly break down the National Assembly door and drag out the people inside,” and that it was obvious for him to think “the people” ("inweon" in Korean) inside were the lawmakers ("uiweon").
But Yoon immediately rebutted, "I don't use the word, 'people.'"
"According to the witness, the word he heard was also 'people' but I have never used the word 'people' before," Yoon argued.
Earlier, ex-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun had argued that the people to be dragged out were not lawmakers, but military "agents" ("yoweon" in Korean) deployed to the National Assembly.
However, Kwak denied this claim, saying that “no personnel had entered the building yet so when I received the call, I understood that the order to bring people out referred to National Assembly members.”
In his testimony at the sixth hearing of Yoon’s impeachment trial held at the Constitutional Court, Kwak also testified that he had received orders from the president to “quickly break down the National Assembly door and drag out the people inside” and also from then Defense Minister Kim that it was “the president’s order.”
Kwak added that this information was also heard by his subordinate commanders through a video conference call with them in speaker phone mode. Kwak is one of the whistleblowers who first revealed Yoon's order to detain the lawmakers during the night of martial law late last year.
When asked if he had received any further orders from Yoon or ex-Minister Kim to withdraw troops from the Assembly building after the martial law was lifted, Kwak answered “No, I did not,” also contradicting Yoon’s claim on Jan. 23.
During the trial's fourth hearing on Jan. 23, Yoon had told the justices that “as soon as the resolution to lift martial law was made, I immediately called the defense minister and the martial law commander to order the withdrawal.” The martial law commander was Park An-su, then chief of staff of the Army.
Kwak said he was the one who had decided to withdraw the troops that night -- not the president or the ex-defense minister.
"Former Minister Kim Yong-hyun called me on a secure phone and asked what to do. I responded, 'We will halt operations at the three locations — the National Assembly, the National Election Commission and the Democratic Party of Korea headquarters — as well as at pollster Ggot and then withdraw.' After that, the withdrawal was carried out."
Thursday’s hearing involved witness examinations of three figures requested by Yoon’s side: Col. Kim Hyun-tae, head of the 707th Special Missions Group; Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-geun, then-head of the Army Special Warfare Command; and Park Chun-seop, senior presidential secretary for economic affairs.
'Ashamed' of clashes with civilians
Meanwhile, Kwak's subordinate, Col. Kim Hyun-tae, head of the 707th Special Missions Group, who arrived at the National Assembly on Dec. 3 by helicopter, testified that he felt a “sense of shame” that night when watching his officers clash with civilians who were blocking them from entering the building under Yoon’s declaration of martial law.
He also admitted that a total of 97 military officers from his unit, including himself, privately questioned their orders.
“Many members of our unit felt a strong sense of shame, thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’ or ‘Why am I acting this way against our citizens?’ even while engaged in physical confrontations with civilians. The members of our unit only acted defensively,” Kim said, telling the justices that he arrived at the Assembly by helicopter.
“Some soldiers apologized to citizens as they withdrew. … No one in our unit ever pointed their guns at civilians, nor did they have the intention or ability to use force against them.”
He also testified that his subordinates carried live ammunition for rifles and pistols on the helicopter they took.
Due to the large crowd of civilians forming a human barricade at the front gate of the National Assembly, Kim said they had to unload the ammunition boxes and other equipment at the side wall of the Assembly and then proceed to enter.
When the lawyer for the National Assembly asked in the hearing, “Does bringing live ammunition mean there was a possibility of using firearms?” Kim simply replied, “Yes.”
Kim denied that he was given an order to “drag out” the National Assembly members that night, contradicting his own statement at a Dec. 9 press conference that he was ordered to “remove lawmakers from the plenary hall.”
“There was no such order, and even if there had been, it would not have been feasible, as far as I recall,” Kim said during the hearing.
But he testified that his then-commander, Kwak, called him and said that there wouldn't be more than 150 people inside the Assembly building, and asked if he could still break into the building.
“(Kwak) didn’t say forcibly, but in a softer manner as if he had been given such an order and had to pass it on to me,” Kim said.
“After I reported to him that we could not enter the plenary hall, Kwak asked me if there was any possible way to cut off the electricity (inside the building),” Kim said.
The trial proceeded on Thursday as a petition calling for the impeachment of Moon Hyung-bae, acting chief justice of the Constitutional Court, garnered over 100,000 signatures.
Having surpassed 100,000 signatures within 30 days on the National Assembly's public petition website, the case will now be sent to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.
The petition states that acting Chief Justice Moon is “not listening to the people’s voices” and that “the entire nation feels that Justice Moon's trial process is somewhat biased.”
Kwon Young-se, the interim leader of the People Power Party, accused the court of creating constitutional disputes.
Kwon stated that public distrust in the court is growing, and argued that the court is pushing forward the impeachment trial at an unreasonable pace by rejecting the presidential legal team’s requests for witnesses and evidence and excessively limiting witness examination time.
Also on Thursday, the Defense Ministry imposed leaves of absence due to the indictments on Kwak, Lee Jin-woo, former chief of the Capital Defense Command, Yeo In-hyung, former head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command and Moon Sang-ho, former commander of the Korea Defense Intelligence Command. The four were indicted for their involvement in President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law declaration.
Staff reporter Jung Min-kyung contributed to this article. -- Ed.
ddd@heraldcorp.com
