Ex-intel agency No. 2 changes testimony on where he noted down 'politician arrest list'
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo appeared at the 10th hearing in President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial on Thursday, testifying that the Cabinet meeting that was convened on the night of Dec. 3, 2024, right before Yoon’s declaration of martial law was “flawed.”
Han, who is currently suspended from his position after the National Assembly also impeached him on Dec. 27, said that night’s meeting was different from regular ones, with both “formal and substantive” flaws.
“(During the meeting,) I acknowledged that a martial law declaration should follow constitutional and legal procedures, and it did not meet those procedures,” Han told the justices.
He added that whether it was a proper Cabinet meeting or not should be determined through further investigation and legal procedures.
Han also testified that all Cabinet members tried to dissuade Yoon from declaring martial law.
“I remember all (Cabinet members who were at the meeting) had worried and (tried to) dissuade Yoon" from declaring martial law, Han said, when asked by the National Assembly, which is prosecuting Yoon’s impeachment trial, whether there was anyone who agreed to Yoon’s martial law declaration.
This contradicts former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun’s testimony on Jan. 23 that “there were people who agreed to a martial law declaration.”
Regarding Kim’s remarks, Han said, “That’s not how I remember it at all.”
Meanwhile, Yoon attended the hearing on Thursday, but left just before Han entered the courtroom.
Yoon’s legal representative said that Yoon left because he thought it was inappropriate for the president and the prime minister to sit in the same courtroom.
“It would not be good for the country's stature, so without asking for permission, the president left,” Yoon’s lawyer Yoon Kab-keun told the justices, pleading for their understanding.
Later at 5:20 p.m., Yoon reentered the courtroom as Han finished his witness examination. The suspended president was present when second witness Hong Jang-won, the former National Intelligence Service deputy director, appeared for his second round of examination.
Hong already spoke to the court on Feb. 4, but Yoon’s legal team raised concerns about the credibility of his testimony and requested that he be summoned again.
Hong admitted to a "slight error" in his memory, changing the location of where he had jotted down a list of politicians to be arrested.
Hong, who was at that time the No. 2 at the NIS, testified at the trial's fifth hearing on Feb. 5 to having written down a list of politicians he was ordered by Yoon to arrest in front of NIS Director Cho Tae-yong’s official residence. Hong testified that he had made out the list during a phone call with Yeo In-hyung, who was then commander of the Defense Counterintelligence Command. Hong had gone to the residence to report on the martial law declaration to Cho, but did not find him there.
But his boss, NIS Director Cho, directly refuted the testimony of his subordinate Hong on Feb. 13.
“Hong was inside his office at 11:06 p.m. on Dec. 3, the time he claimed to be in front of my official residence. ... I’ve checked this on surveillance camera footage,” Cho told the court last week.
Hong previously testified that before he spoke to Yeo late in the night of Dec. 3, Yoon had called him directly at 10:53 p.m., immediately after his declaration of martial law. He testified that Yoon instructed him to “take this opportunity to round them all up. Get rid of them all."
In the most recent testimony, Hong confirmed Cho's version of events that he was in his own office.
Meanwhile, Cho Ji-ho, the suspended commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, was also set to be called in on Thursday after he had refused to appear previously, citing health concerns due to leukemia.
Cho is believed to know who orchestrated the military intrusion into the National Assembly to prevent lawmakers from passing the motion to lift the martial law declaration on the night of Dec. 3.
While the court added two extra hearings to Yoon’s impeachment trial from the originally scheduled eight, it remains unclear when the court will set the date to deliver a verdict. Considering that it took about two weeks for the court to announce the verdict in previous presidents’ impeachment cases, it is likely that Yoon’s impeachment decision will be made in mid-March, if Thursday was the final hearing.
ddd@heraldcorp.com
