Yoon: “Martial law to pursue a long-term dictatorship? You’d have to be crazy... I had no choice but to withstand the opposition’s barrage of attacks”

[Financial News] Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was sentenced to life imprisonment at his first trial over the “December 3 Martial Law” crisis, flatly denied the charges at an appeal hearing on the charge of being the ringleader of an insurrection, saying, “If I had intended to establish a long-term dictatorship, would I be crazy enough to stay in that difficult job as president for so long?” He repeated his earlier claim that declaring martial law was a last resort to send a political message in response to the conduct of the powerful opposition.

Yoon made the remarks on the 27th during questioning as a defendant in the appeal of his insurrection-ringleader case, heard by Criminal Division 12-1 of the Seoul High Court (High Court Judges Lee Seung-cheol, Jo Jin-gu and Kim Mina).
Regarding the reasons for declaring martial law at the time, he said, “If even the head of the BAI were impeached, what would people abroad make of the South Korean government? I thought we had to speak out politically about the opposition’s conduct and move forward, and that there was no other choice.” In response to the Special Prosecutor’s Team for Insurrection’s allegation that he sought to seize state institutions and stage a self-coup, he countered, “If we respond in a communist manner to forces that destroy a free society, we ourselves destroy freedom,” adding, “The single-term presidential system is a very well-designed system. If I served for at least five years, I don’t think I’d live out my natural life.”
Asked why he issued the proclamation (banning political activity, permitting arrests without warrants, and so on) despite expecting emergency martial law to end quickly, he said, “I simply left those provisions in place to stop demonstrators from converging on the National Assembly. I thought martial law would be lifted soon, so I wondered whether they had much significance.”

The defense team spent time that day asking about Yoon’s view of the state and his philosophy.
Yoon recalled the investigations he directed while serving as prosecutor general under the Moon Jae-in administration, saying, “When I received my letter of appointment from former President Moon, I was grateful that he urged me to ‘investigate even those in power.’ I believed that firmly rooting out corruption around those in power would actually help and protect the elected government.” He went on to mention, among other things, the controversy over his exclusion from prosecutorial command authority during former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae’s tenure, adding, “I resigned because I thought power had been privatized.”
At the end of the questioning, he also mentioned conversations with his wife, Kim Keon Hee. He said, “After the investigation into the Cho Kuk case and after this martial law, my wife rebuked me countless times: ‘Why not just launch a case and enjoy your position? Why clash with those in power and make life hard for yourself? Are you a fool?’” He added, “But I can’t become a sinner in the eyes of history, so I can’t help doing what I have to do.”


That afternoon, Kim Yong-hyun, the former minister of national defense who was indicted alongside Yoon, was also questioned as a defendant.
Asked by the court whether anti-state forces actually existed, Kim, the former minister, replied, “According to security experts, South Korea’s pro-North Korean and anti-state forces number between 400,000 and 500,000,” adding, “I came to believe they needed to be dealt with through emergency martial law.” Explaining why troops were sent to the National Election Commission before the National Assembly, he said, “After martial law was declared, I personally ordered that the NEC be secured as quickly as possible because I was concerned its servers might be damaged.”
The appeal court completed questioning of the defendants that day and is scheduled to hear the special prosecutor team’s closing arguments on the 29th. At the first trial, the court ruled that Yoon’s actions met the elements of insurrection—“the purpose of subverting the constitutional order” and “riot”—and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
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