Opposition: "Gyeomgun's plan to paralyze the National Assembly revealed... Partial power outage confirmed"

The Democratic Party of Korea confirmed that the martial law troops who entered the National Assembly in the early hours of December 4 last year cut off part of the power supply to the main building of the National Assembly, stating on the 16th, "The attempt to cut power to the National Assembly has been uncovered, revealing the reality of the operation to paralyze the National Assembly's functions."

Members of the Democratic Party's 'Special Committee for the National Investigation into the Alleged Rebellion Charges through the Declaration of Martial Law by the Yoon Seok-yeol Government' held a press conference at the National Assembly on the same day, saying, "The power outage measure, which had only been mentioned in martial law documents and some testimonies, has been confirmed to have actually taken place during the martial law period."

On the 12th, during the plenary session held at the National Assembly, the motion to extend the activity period of the Special Committee for the National Investigation into the Charges of Insurrection through the Declaration of Martial Law by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration was passed. 2025.2.12 Photo by Kim Hyun-min

According to the key events by time presented by the Democratic Party along with CCTV footage, at around 0:32 on December 4 last year, 16 martial law troops, including Kim Hyun-tae, commander of the 707 Special Mission Unit, broke a window on the second floor of the National Assembly main building and attempted to enter but were blocked by aides and party officials.

Among the martial law troops, seven headed to the fourth floor of the main building around 0:54, wandered around, and then took the elevator down to the basement level 1 at 1:01. Afterwards, in the basement, they tried to control the door of the passage connecting the main building and the Members' Office Building by tying it with a fire hose. Then, at 1:06, the martial law troops opened the distribution box on basement level 1 and sequentially turned off the general lighting circuit breaker and the emergency lighting circuit breaker, cutting off the power supply to basement level 1, the Democratic Party explained.

The Democratic Party stated, "This power outage measure, which plunged the basement level 1 of the National Assembly main building into complete darkness, lasted about 5 minutes and 48 seconds," adding, "This occurred just about five minutes after the National Assembly passed a resolution demanding the lifting of martial law."

They continued, "If the martial law troops had cut off the electricity to the entire main building instead of just the basement, or if the measure had been taken a little earlier, the National Assembly would have plunged into chaos in the dark and would not have been able to lift martial law."

The Democratic Party noted that this fact aligns with the testimony of Commander Kim, who appeared before the Constitutional Court on February 6, and questioned President Yoon Seok-yeol, "Even after this, do you still claim that the deployment of martial law troops was for maintaining order?" They pointed out, "Behind the martial law troops cutting power to the National Assembly was Yoon Seok-yeol's order to prevent the resolution to lift martial law."

The Democratic Party urged investigative agencies to conduct a thorough investigation and added that they will thoroughly investigate related suspicions at the upcoming special committee hearings.