'Martial Law State Council' CCTV Secured... Han Deok-su and Choi Sang-mok Banned from Leaving the Country

The police have banned Han Deok-su, former Prime Minister, and Choi Sang-mok, former Minister of Strategy and Finance, from leaving the country in connection with the State Council meeting held just before the emergency martial law announcement on December 3, under suspicion of rebellion. This accelerates the investigation into other attendees of the State Council meeting besides former President Yoon Seok-yeol.

The Special Investigation Team for the December 3 Martial Law of the National Police Agency announced on the 27th that they took this measure in mid-month through a media notice. The departure ban for Lee Sang-min, former Minister of the Interior and Safety, who was already banned from leaving the country last December, has been extended.

The special team analyzed CCTV footage from the Presidential Office's main reception room (State Council meeting place) and office corridor, obtained voluntarily from the security office, from 6 p.m. on December 3, last year, when martial law was declared, until the next day.

The police confirmed that the suspects' statements to the police differed from their statements in the National Assembly and elsewhere, and summoned them one after another the previous day to verify the facts. The special team reportedly focused on questioning them about the reasons for discrepancies between their statements and the CCTV content during the State Council meeting at that time.

Former Prime Minister Han testified at a National Assembly hearing on February 6 that "I was not aware of the martial law declaration at all at the time of the proclamation and only realized it after returning to my office and seeing the document in the back pocket of my suit after the martial law lifting State Council meeting."

Choi, the former Deputy Prime Minister, who is suspected of receiving a note containing the establishment of an emergency legislative body from former President Yoon, testified, "Someone handed over the material in the form of a folded note," and "I decided to ignore it regarding martial law, so I didn't look at it."

Former Minister Lee is also suspected of ordering power and water cuts to some media outlets such as MBC, Hankyoreh, and Kyunghyang Shinmun during the martial law. However, he denied the suspicion by testifying as a witness at the Constitutional Court's impeachment trial on February 11, saying, "I saw a few paper notes from afar in the Presidential Office (office), and one of them had content related to the power and water cuts of the Fire Department."

The police are questioning the credibility of these statements, which claimed "didn't know in advance" or "tried to stop it." They believe there is a high possibility that they actually agreed or at least condoned or abetted it. If the facts are confirmed, perjury charges may be added in addition to rebellion charges.

The police plan to focus on securing evidence in the future and then review whether to secure their custody. Regarding former President Yoon, who is currently on trial for rebellion charges, there is a possibility that the evidence secured by the police may be additionally adopted by the court ex officio. The police intend to cooperate as much as possible upon the court's request.

In addition, the police have extended the departure ban on key security officials, including Park Jong-jun, former Chief of the Presidential Security Service, Kim Seong-hoon, Deputy Chief of the Presidential Security Service, and Lee Kwang-woo, former Head of the Presidential Security Service, who are accused of obstructing the execution of the arrest warrant for former President Yoon.

They are accused of obstructing the execution of the first arrest warrant for former President Yoon. In particular, Deputy Chief Kim is also accused of instructing the communication record deletion to the security phone (secure phone) server manager at the Presidential Office just before the execution of the second arrest warrant, which proceeded after Chief Park's resignation.

The special team is expanding its investigation into the circumstances of the remote deletion of secure phone information related to martial law. While analyzing the secure phone server voluntarily submitted by the security office, the police discovered traces of remote deletion of secure phone information of former President Yoon, former Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service Hong Jang-won, and former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Chief Kim Bong-sik.

The police believe there is a possibility that a security office official with access to the server deleted the information. The secure phone server could be a key piece of evidence for proving not only the obstruction of official duties but also the rebellion charges, according to legal experts.



theknight@fnnews.com Jeong Kyung-su Reporter