The South Korean police raided this Wednesday Presidential Office and police headquarters as part of an investigation into the imposition of martial law last week by the president of the country, Yoon Suk-yeol.
During the raid, which also took place in the Seoul Metropolitan Police and in the Parliament police headquartersYoon was not in his office, according to investigators.
The South Korean president is prohibited from leaving the country as part of an investigation for “insurrection” for the brief suspension of civilian command on December 3.
These searches take place shortly after the arrest this Wednesday of the head of the National Police, Cho Ji Hoand the head of the same body in the South Korean capital, Kim Bong Sikfor alleged insurrection.
The agents arrested Cho and Kim without a warrant, who reportedly gave the order to the security forces to cordon off the complex of the National Assembly to prevent access to deputies in an attempt to reverse the martial law decree, according to the state news agency Yonhap.
These arrests take place just one day after the former Minister of Defense, Kim Yong Hyunwas arrested this Tuesday on the same charge. In the last few hours, Kim has been transferred to a protective cell after having tried take your life in a detention center in eastern Seoul.
“There was an incident where he (Kim) gave up the moment we rushed into his cell.”explained the commissioner general of the Korean Correctional Service, Shin Yong-haein statements collected by the agency Yonhap. In addition, he mentioned that Kim had tried to commit suicide in the toilet using a string from her clothes.
“The results of the medical examination indicate that The prisoner’s state of health is good, without any abnormalitiesand currently leads a normal life in the center,” the Ministry of Justice revealed in a statement sent to the agency AFP.
Kim said through his lawyers that “All responsibility for this situation falls exclusively on me.”, and that his subordinates “simply followed my orders and fulfilled their assigned duties.”
The former defense minister is also banned from leaving the country, as are the former interior minister and the army general in charge of the martial law operation.
On the other hand, the president of the National Assembly, Woo Won Shik, requested this Wednesday the formation of a special committee to carry out a parliamentary investigation into the declaration of martial law.
In statements to the press collected by the agency YonhapWoo defended the opening of this investigation within Parliament to force the South Korean president to give “public testimony” about the measure imposed on December 3.
Yoon announced martial law in an unexpected speech to the nation in which he accused the opposition of sympathizing with North Korea after the opposition deputies carried out a budget measure and presented impeachment motions against several senior officials.
(With information from EFE and Europa Press)
