Seventy-one soldiers mobilized for President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law plot on Dec. 3 now need psychological counseling, a report by local media outlet JTBC said Thursday.
According to the local broadcaster, the Ministry of National Defense recently conducted a psychological evaluation of soldiers dispatched during the night of martial law. It was found that 71 now are in need of treatment for mental health issues.
The military evaluation categorizes the subjects into three categories: dangerous, concerning and normal. Two of the soldiers were in the dangerous group, while the other 69 were in the concerning group.
Around 1,500 soldiers were mobilized by Yoon's martial law decree, dispatched to major state institutions such as the National Assembly and the National Election Commission. Those sent to the parliamentary compound in particular clashed with lawmakers and civilians trying to stop the troops from implementing Yoon's emergency order for military rule.
Yoon is currently facing both criminal and impeachment trials on charges of leading an insurrection and abuse of power related to his failed martial law attempt. He has denied accusations of giving illegal orders in the process, such as ordering the blockading of the National Assembly or the arrest of a list of prominent politicians and his outspoken opponents.
Footage from several news broadcasters and YouTubers has shown the armed martial law troops refraining from actively using force against civilians, with one soldier clearly apologizing to civilians in front of the National Assembly. As such, it was widely presumed that many of the soldiers might suffer psychological trauma from being ordered to impose what is accused to be Yoon's illegal martial law declaration.
All of the soldiers under the rank of noncommissioned officer are South Korean men fulfilling their mandatary military duty -- required of all able-bodied men in the country for a minimum of 18 months. Yoon initially claimed that only noncommissioned officers or higher-ranked military officials were mobilized to implement martial law, but subsequent investigation showed that at least 61 enlisted soldiers were mobilized from the Army's Capital Defense Command alone.
Two weeks after the martial law declaration, it was reported that "scores of soldiers" were found to be in need of psychological help through the mental health status evaluation conducted by the Defense Ministry. The number of the soldiers had not been revealed at the time.
According to reports, the evaluation was only conducted on soldiers who voluntarily applied to participate, meaning the actual number of soldiers traumatized by the martial law crisis could potentially be a lot greater.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
