Prosecutors Summon Special Forces 707 Unit Commander for 'Breaking into National Assembly by Smashing Window' Incident

Ministry of National Defense and Military Officers Summoned One After Another
Tracking Movements and Duties on Martial Law Day

The prosecution investigating the ‘12·3 Emergency Martial Law Incident’ summoned Colonel Kim Hyun-tae, commander of the 707th Special Mission Group under the Army Special Warfare Command, as a witness on the 18th.

Kim Hyuntae, commander of the 707 Special Mission Unit, is speaking at the National Assembly National Defense Committee's emergency martial law-related inquiry held on the 10th. Photo by Kim Hyunmin

According to the legal community on that day, the Prosecution's Emergency Martial Law Special Investigation Headquarters (headed by Park Se-hyun, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office) summoned Colonel Kim as a witness for questioning.

Colonel Kim stated to the press upon attending the investigation, “I will tell exactly what happened.”

After the declaration of martial law on the 3rd of this month, Colonel Kim led about 200 troops deployed to the National Assembly and commanded on-site. He revealed that he ordered to break the windows and enter to seal the doors from the inside.

However, Colonel Kim claimed that this was in accordance with orders from higher-ups, including Special Warfare Commander Kwak Jong-geun, to seal off two buildings: the National Assembly building and the Members' Office Building.

On the 9th, Colonel Kim held an emergency press conference and testified that after entering the National Assembly building, he received phone calls from Commander Kwak at intervals of 1 to 2 minutes, with instructions along the lines of, “They say no more than 150 lawmakers should be inside. Can you get them out?”

The prosecution also summoned Jeong Seong-woo, Chief of the 1st Division of the Counterintelligence Command, as a witness for questioning on the same day. Jeong testified that he received orders from Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyung to copy the Central Election Management Committee’s server.

The prosecution also summoned and questioned Lee Jae-hak, Head of Security Investigation at the Counterintelligence Command, and Gu Sam-hoe, Commander of the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade.

Officials from the Ministry of National Defense, including Oh Young-dae, Director of Personnel Planning, and Bang Jeong-hwan, Deputy Director of Policy Planning, were also investigated in turn.