Park Sung-jae and Cho Tae-yong, Former Justice and NIS Chiefs, Face Arrest... Special Prosecutor Tightens the Reins on Insurrection Probe

[Financial News] Former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae and former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Cho Tae-yong, both accused of supporting or participating in the emergency martial law declared by former President Yoon Suk Yeol, are now at a crossroads regarding their arrest. The Special Prosecutor Team, led by Cho Eun-seok, appears to be accelerating its investigation into the insurrection and treason allegations in an effort to conclude the probe before the end of the year.
According to legal sources on the 11th, the Special Prosecutor Team reapplied for an arrest warrant for former Minister Park on charges of participating in major insurrection duties and abuse of authority. The pretrial detention hearing is expected to take place later this week.
Park is accused of sequentially participating in Yoon Suk Yeol’s insurrection crimes after the declaration of martial law by convening meetings of MOJ directors, considering the dispatch of prosecutors to the Joint Investigation Headquarters, checking the capacity of correctional facilities, and instructing staff responsible for exit bans to report for duty.
The Special Prosecutor Team had initially requested an arrest warrant for Park on the 9th, but the court dismissed it, citing the need for further debate regarding the recognition of illegality.
Subsequently, the Special Prosecutor Team summoned Park again and conducted additional searches of his mobile phone and the Ministry of Justice, adding new criminal facts to the case.
At a briefing, Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok stated, “We have secured a significant amount of meaningful evidence,” and explained, “We focused on clarifying the relationship between Park and Yoon, not only at the time of the martial law declaration and its lifting, but also before and after, to establish awareness of illegality and possible cooperation with the martial law.”
During the forensic analysis of Park’s mobile phone, the Special Prosecutor Team reportedly recovered a file titled 'Document Related to Abuse of Authority.' This document pointed out abuses of legislative power, impeachment authority, and budget review authority by the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), claiming that the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea was abusing its powers through 'legislative dictatorship.'
Immediately after receiving this document, Park attended a meeting at the Samcheong-dong Safe House, joined by former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, former Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs Kim Joo-hyun, and former Minister of Government Legislation Wankyu Lee.
The Special Prosecutor Team believes that the MOJ’s Prosecution Division, under Park’s direction, drafted a document justifying martial law, and added this to the list of criminal facts related to abuse of authority.
Additionally, the so-called 'safe house meeting' is suspected to have been held to discuss post-martial law countermeasures, raising concerns about possible destruction of evidence.
The Special Prosecutor Team confirmed that at Park’s direction, then-head of the Korea Correctional Service Shin Yong-hae ordered the MOJ to check the capacity of detention centers in the Seoul metropolitan area and received a report stating that approximately 3,600 people could be accommodated.
However, Park has consistently argued that his instructions at the time were merely to review general response measures following the declaration of martial law, and that there was nothing illegal involved.
Former NIS Director Cho Tae-yong, who is facing arrest on charges of violating the NIS Act, dereliction of duty, perjury, destruction of evidence, and falsifying official documents, appeared in court for a pretrial detention hearing. The Special Prosecutor Team submitted a 482-page opinion and a 151-slide presentation to Jungho Park, the judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, to emphasize the necessity of Cho’s arrest.
On the day martial law was declared, Cho was summoned to the Office of the President of South Korea around 9 p.m., where former President Yoon Suk Yeol informed cabinet members of his plan to declare martial law. After the cabinet meeting, Cho was seen folding a document believed to be related to martial law and placing it in his suit pocket.
Cho is also accused of violating the political neutrality obligation by providing CCTV footage of former NIS First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won’s movements during martial law only to the People Power Party, while withholding footage of his own movements from the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). The Special Prosecutor Team also charged Cho with perjury, alleging that he testified before the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea and the Constitutional Court of Korea during Yoon’s impeachment trial that he had never heard the term 'emergency powers' at the Samcheong-dong Safe House meeting in March last year.


kyu0705@fnnews.com Kim Dong-gyu, Jung Kyung-soo Reporter