Seeming Aware of Government Official's Disclosure
The Presidential Office issued a statement denying that President Yoon Seok-yeol ordered the arrest of lawmakers during the emergency martial law, but retracted the statement just two minutes later.
At around 1:31 p.m. on the 6th, the Presidential Office released a brief statement saying, "The President has never instructed anyone to arrest or detain lawmakers."
Immediately after the statement was released, numerous media outlets rushed out breaking news on the matter. However, the Presidential Office requested the press corps to 'delete' the reports just two minutes after issuing the statement.
In political circles, this is interpreted as a reaction to the successive revelations by insiders about the situation during the martial law. In fact, at the National Assembly that day, Hong Jang-won, the 1st Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service, revealed that President Yoon directly ordered the arrest of politicians. Deputy Director Hong stated that President Yoon personally instructed him to "round them all up and take care of it."
The arrest list he disclosed reportedly included key political figures such as Woo Won-shik, Speaker of the National Assembly; Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea; Han Dong-hoon, leader of the People Power Party; as well as broadcaster Kim Eo-jun and Kim Min-woong, the executive director of the Candlelight Victory Transition Action.
There was also confusion throughout the day over whether President Yoon would deliver an additional public address. Early in the morning, there were expectations that the President would apologize to the public for the emergency martial law situation that caused anxiety and inconvenience, and explain its background. However, the Presidential Office announced late in the afternoon that there would be no such address that day.
Currently, the President’s key aides remain silent in response to inquiries about the issues following the declaration of martial law.
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