South Korean prosecutors seek to arrest ex-defence minister over martial law

South Korean prosecutors are seeking to arrest the former defence minister alleged to have colluded with President Yoon Suk Yeol in imposing martial law last week.

Martial law lasted only about six hours, but was the first of its kind in more than 40 years and has caused a domestic firestorm and large street protests.

Mr Yoon and his associates face criminal investigations and impeachment attempts.

The Justice Ministry has banned Mr Yoon and eight others from leaving the country as authorities see them as key suspects in the martial law case. It is the first time a sitting president in South Korea has received such a travel ban.

The Seoul Central District Court said on Tuesday it will review prosecutors’ request for a warrant to arrest former defence minister Kim Yong Hyun, who has been accused of recommending martial law to Mr Yoon and sending troops to the National Assembly to block lawmakers from voting on it.

Enough members eventually managed to enter a parliament chamber to reject Mr Yoon’s decree, forcing the Cabinet to lift it before daybreak on December 4.

Mr Kim released a statement through his law firm, saying he “deeply apologises for causing significant anxiety and inconvenience”.

He said all responsibility over martial law enforcement rests solely with him and pleaded for leniency for soldiers deployed to enforce martial law, saying they were only following orders.

If the arrest warrant is issued, Mr Kim would be the first person arrested in the martial law case. Prosecutors would have up to 20 days to investigate and determine whether to indict him.

A conviction on the charge of rebellion would carry up to the death penalty.

Prosecutors reportedly accuse Mr Kim of working with Mr Yoon and other military and police officers of staging a riot to disrupt the constitution. Prosecutors’ offices in Seoul could not immediately confirm the reports.

During a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, Kwak Jong-keun, commander of the Army Special Warfare Command whose troops were sent to parliament, testified that he received direct instructions from Kim Yong Hyun to obstruct lawmakers from entering the National Assembly’s main chamber.

Mr Kwak said the purpose of Mr Kim’s instructions was to prevent the assembly from gathering the required 150 votes necessary to overturn Mr Yoon’s martial law order.

The Defence Ministry suspended Mr Kwak last week and is among those who face opposition-raised rebellion charges along with Mr Yoon and Mr Kim.

Opposition parties and many experts say the martial law decree was unconstitutional. They say a president is by law allowed to declare martial law only during “wartime, war-like situations or other comparable national emergency states” but South Korea was not in such a situation.

They argue that deploying troops to seal the National Assembly to suspend its political activities amounted to rebellion because the South Korean constitution does not allow a president to use the military to suspend parliament in any situation.

In his martial law announcement, the conservative Mr Yoon stressed the need to rebuild the country by eliminating “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces” in a reference to his liberal rivals who control parliament.

Since taking office in 2022,  Mr Yoon has been on a near-constant collision course with the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, which has introduced motions seeking to impeach some of his top officials and launched a fierce political offensive against Mr Yoon over a spate of scandals involving him and his wife.

The focus of attention is how authorities could investigate Mr Yoon and whether they can detain him.

South Korean law gives a president immunity from prosecution while in office, except for allegations of rebellion or treason.

This means that Mr Yoon can be questioned and detained by investigative agencies over his martial law decree, but many observers doubt that authorities will forcefully detain him because of the potential for clashes with his presidential security service.

They also say the security service will not likely permit searches of Mr Yoon’s office, citing a law that prohibits searches on sites with state secrets without approval from those in charge of those areas.

In the case of former president Park Geun-hye, who was thrown out of office in 2017 after being impeached by parliament over a corruption scandal, prosecutors failed to search her office and ended up receiving documents outside the compound because presidential officials turned them away.

After refusing to meet with prosecutors while in office, Ms Park underwent questioning by them and was arrested after the Constitutional Court approved her impeachment and ruled to dismiss her as president in March 2017.

Yoon avoided impeachment Saturday after most ruling party lawmakers boycotted a floor vote.

The Democratic Party said it would prepare for a new vote to impeach Yoon on Saturday.

It said it is pushing to impeach Mr Yoon’s police chief and justice minister as well.