Civil War Special Prosecutor Accelerates 'Foreign Exchange Investigation'... Expected Difficulty in Proving Allegations

[Financial News] The special prosecutor team for civil war and foreign exchange (Cho Eunseok Special Prosecutor) is now focusing its investigation on foreign exchange allegations against former President Yoon Seokyeol. However, as foreign exchange allegations are closely related to restricted information such as military secrets, it is expected to be challenging to prove the allegations.
According to the legal community on the 21st, Nam Sejin, the chief judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, began a warrant review for Kim Yongdae, the Ministry of National Defense Drone Operations Commander, from 3 p.m. on this day. The civil war special prosecutor team requested an arrest warrant for Commander Kim on charges including falsifying official documents on the 20th. A total of seven people, including Kim Hyongsu, a special prosecutor, and Oh Sangyeon, a deputy chief prosecutor, attended the warrant review on this day.
The special prosecutor team believes there is a risk of evidence destruction and flight, as Commander Kim strongly denies the connection between the Pyongyang drone operation and the 12·3 martial law.
The special prosecutor team suspects that former President Yoon instructed the Ministry of National Defense Drone Operations Command to deploy drones to Pyongyang last October to create a justification for declaring the 12·3 martial law. The team also sees the possibility of the military's systematic involvement in concealing this. In contrast, Commander Kim maintains that the Pyongyang drone operation in October last year was legally conducted under the Joint Chiefs of Staff's instructions for responding to North Korea's balloon threats.
The special prosecutor team is focusing on the foreign exchange allegations against former President Yoon. Park Jiyeong, a special prosecutor, explained in a press briefing on the 21st, "The allegations related to North Korean drones are explicitly specified in the special prosecutor law as subjects of investigation, so an investigation is inevitable," and "The drone-related part is directly linked to national security or interests, so extreme caution is being exercised in the investigation process and public relations."
Among the subjects of investigation listed in Article 2 of the Civil War and Foreign Exchange Special Prosecutor Law is the crime of attempting to provoke war or armed conflict by inducing North Korean attacks through methods such as drone infiltration into Pyongyang related to the 12·3 martial law, and the crime of attempting civil war or military rebellion by declaring martial law through this.
As foreign exchange allegations are closely related to military secrets, it is expected to be quite challenging to prove that the drone deployment in October last year was an unprecedented military action.
A lawyer who is a former special prosecutor said, "Based on the information known so far, it seems that the drone infiltration operation in October last year was not carried out through the usual command chain, but this alone is somewhat insufficient to prove the allegations," and "The situation in North Korea at the time or past patterns of military drone infiltration operations should be comprehensively considered, and the key will be how much information the special prosecutor team can grasp to make this judgment."


kyu0705@fnnews.com Kim Dongkyu Reporter