Special Prosecutor for Insurrection Summons Former President Yoon Sukyeol for Second Round of Questioning Today

Public Appearance Through Main Entrance of Seoul High Prosecutors' Office
Comprehensive Investigation Expected on Obstruction of Arrest, Secure Phone Data Deletion, Martial Law Cabinet Meeting, and Foreign Aggression

The special prosecutor team led by Cho Eunseok, which is investigating the 12·3 Martial Law and related insurrection and foreign aggression cases, will summon former President Yoon Sukyeol for a second round of questioning on July 5.

Former President Yoon Sukyeol is appearing at the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office building in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 28th of last month to undergo investigation by the Special Prosecutor for Internal Affairs as a suspect. Photo by Yonhap News

According to legal sources on July 5, the special prosecutor for the insurrection case notified former President Yoon to appear at the special prosecutor's office located in the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office at 9:00 a.m. for the second round of questioning. Yoon's side requested to push back the appearance time to 10:00 a.m., but when the special prosecutor team refused, they stated that Yoon would appear at around 9:00 a.m., even if he was 10 to 20 minutes late. As with the first summons on June 28, former President Yoon will make a public appearance through the main entrance on the first floor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office.

The special prosecutor team plans to intensively question Yoon on charges of obstruction of special official duties related to the prevention of the execution of an arrest warrant, violation of the Presidential Security Act regarding orders to delete information from secure phones, abuse of authority in connection with the martial law Cabinet meeting, and foreign aggression charges. The investigation is expected to broadly cover allegations that Yoon interfered with Cabinet members' rights to deliberate and vote on martial law, attempted to conceal the illegal martial law by obtaining post-facto signatures from former Prime Minister Han Ducksoo and others on the martial law proclamation, and ordered the military's Drone Operations Command to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles to Pyongyang to justify the imposition of martial law.

After the first round of questioning on June 28, the special prosecutor team spent a week questioning several Cabinet members and defense officials to strengthen the case against former President Yoon. Regarding the Cabinet meeting, the team questioned former Prime Minister Han Ducksoo, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Jooho, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Deokgeun, and Minister of Science and ICT Yoo Sangim. Kim Junghwan, former chief aide to the presidential office who was involved in contacting Cabinet members for the meeting, as well as Kang Uigu, former deputy chief of staff, and Kim Juhyun, former senior secretary for civil affairs, were also summoned and questioned. In addition, Park Jongjun, former chief of the presidential security service, and Kim Sunghoon, former deputy chief, who are linked to the obstruction of arrest and deletion of secure phone data, were recently called in for questioning.

With regard to the foreign aggression charges, the team questioned individuals such as Mr. A, an employee of the Agency for Defense Development's Aviation Technology Research Institute, who is known to have been responsible for supplying unmanned aerial vehicles to the Drone Operations Command. Special Prosecutor Park Jiyoung stated at a briefing the previous day, "Although we cannot disclose the exact number of military officials questioned, a substantial number of investigations are underway regarding the foreign aggression charges."

While Yoon's side has stated their intention to cooperate fully with the investigation, there is a possibility of renewed friction, as seen during the first round of questioning, when they requested a change of investigator. At that time, former President Yoon refused to be questioned on the obstruction of arrest warrant execution by raising an issue with the investigator, Park Changhwan, chief of the Major Crimes Investigation Division at the National Police Agency (Superintendent General). There is also speculation that, after completing the second round of questioning, the special prosecutor may consider an additional summons or request for an arrest warrant for former President Yoon.