"No Knowledge at All on How Former Intelligence Commander Noh Sang-won's Notebook Was Produced"
On the 26th, the legal team of former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, who is under investigation for the December 3 internal conflict incident, held a press conference at the Korea Conference Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, to announce their position. On this day, the legal team claimed that some media outlets, including MBC, "report inaccurately" and restricted attendance at the press conference. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung
The legal team of former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun announced on the 26th that Kim drafted the initial emergency martial law proclamation, and President Yoon Suk-yeol instructed the deletion of the 'public curfew' clause during his review process.
On the same day, Kim's lawyer Yoo Seung-soo held a press conference at the Korea Conference Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul, stating, "Former Minister Kim did draft the initial version. He wrote most of the content, and the President reviewed and made some modifications."
Lawyer Yoo explained, "President Yoon emphasized that the martial law was not intended for the general public, aiming to 'sound an alarm to the National Assembly,' and thus instructed the deletion of the clause." He also referred to the National Intelligence Service's security inspection results of the Central Election Commission's servers, asserting, "If the issue cannot be resolved through lawsuits or investigations, it was the President's duty to confirm it through special measures (emergency martial law)," arguing that the martial law was inevitable.
The legal team also stated their position that the charges of rebellion against President Yoon, former Minister Kim, and others, currently under investigation by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials and the prosecution, are unfounded. They emphasized, "The President declared and lifted the emergency martial law in accordance with the Constitution and laws, upon the National Assembly's request," adding, "There were no casualties, only minimal troops were deployed, and an orderly withdrawal under the command of each commander after lifting the martial law is an undeniable fact."
They also mentioned that the time of President Yoon's martial law declaration on the 3rd was 11 p.m., stating, "If the intention was to establish comprehensive and effective martial law, troops would have been pre-deployed to completely control entry into the National Assembly grounds and the martial law would have been declared at dawn."
Regarding allegations that arrests of major figures such as ruling and opposition party leaders were ordered, they said, "There was no list of detainees," but argued, "Since the proclamation included a ban on political activities, party leaders and key officials were considered potential political actors, and preventive measures could have been taken." They described the arrest squads as "routine tasks related to martial law affairs."
Concerning former Intelligence Command Commander Noh Sang-won, they stated, "We did consult former Commander Noh about possible foreign interference or involvement with the Election Commission," but added, "There was no further involvement." Regarding notes found in former Commander Noh's notebook mentioning 'killing politicians,' they said, "This was purely a private matter of former Commander Noh," and "It has no relation to former Minister Kim."
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