'Martial Law Commander' Jo Seong-hyeon: "Lee Jin-woo ordered to enter National Assembly main building and pull out lawmakers"

Appeared as a Witness by Constitutional Court's Authority
Former Capital Defense Commander Lee Jin-woo Refused to Testify

Cho Seong-hyun, commander of the 1st Security Group of the Capital Defense Command, testified that he received orders from former Capital Defense Command Commander Lee Jin-woo during the December 3 emergency martial law to "enter the main building of the National Assembly and pull out the members of the National Assembly."

President Yoon Suk-yeol is speaking at his 8th impeachment trial hearing held at the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 13th. Photo by Yonhap News

On the afternoon of the 13th, Cho appeared as a witness at the 8th hearing of the impeachment trial of President Yoon Seok-yeol held at the Constitutional Court and responded to Justice Jeong Hyeong-sik’s question, "Did you receive orders from former Commander Lee between 0:31 and 1:00 a.m. on December 4 last year to enter the main building of the National Assembly and pull the members of the National Assembly outside?" by confirming this.

Cho is the only witness the Constitutional Court adopted ex officio. Previously, regarding whether President Yoon ordered to pull out the members who were in the plenary session hall during the martial law, former Commander Lee refused to testify in the impeachment trial, while former Army Special Warfare Command Commander Kwak Jong-geun testified that such an order was given. Therefore, Cho was considered a key witness to clarify whether there was an attempt to enter the National Assembly and interfere with the voting of the members.

On that day, however, when asked whether phrases like "four people go in and pull out one by one," "break the door and pull them out," or words like "arrest" or "gun" were mentioned, Cho replied, "I do not recall hearing such words at the time, but I heard them later through various media," adding, "I remember that they were not mentioned at that time."

When asked why former Commander Lee ordered to pull the members outside, Cho said, "Because I did not fully understand the exact legal operational principles, I did not understand well at the time and was in a state of confusion," and added, "After receiving the mission, within 5 to 10 minutes, it was not a role we could perform alone or something we could do independently. I communicated with the Special Warfare Commander and asked for a review."

There was also testimony that the mission was not clearly assigned during the emergency martial law deployment. Cho testified, "In training or actual situations, the mission is clearly notified in advance, and after sufficiently assessing the situation, plans are made and deployment occurs," and added, "Moving without a clearly assigned mission, as in this case, is a very unusual situation."

Furthermore, testimony was given regarding the background of former Commander Lee ordering Cho to convene the so-called "Guardian Task Force (TF)" and enter the command. Cho explained the Guardian TF as "a unit that integrates various forces capable of conducting counter-terrorism operations to respond."