Asia-Pacific Newsweek
December 12, 2024
Seoul – A joint investigative body was set up on Wednesday to look into President Yoon Seok-yeol’s short-lived martial law, amid concerns about overlapping investigations into the high-profile case involving rebellion charges against the sitting president.
The National Investigation Office of the National Police Agency said it would work with the Senior Official Corruption Investigation Office and the Ministry of National Defense to “leverage the strengths of each agency and eliminate confusion and inefficiency.” The joint panel excluded prosecutors who had been competing with police and the chief information officer to lead the insurgency investigation.
Police last week rejected prosecutors' request for a joint investigation.
Earlier on Wednesday, police arrested South Korea's National Police Chief Cho Ji-ho and Seoul Police Chief Kim Bong-sik without a warrant on rebellion charges, the first time police have detained two senior police officers at the same time. As of Tuesday, both officials were subject to travel bans.
After interrogating Cho for 11 hours and Kim for 10 hours, the police arrested him urgently at 3:50 in the morning.
Both Zhao and Kim are accused of instructing police to block entry to the National Assembly when martial law was declared on December 3, in order to prevent members from entering the parliament to abolish martial law. Zhao is also suspected of dispatching police personnel to the National Election Commission to assist the military in enforcing martial law.
A police official told Yonhap News Agency that the emergency arrest was prompted by the fact that the charge of rebellion is a “serious crime punishable by death” and “concerns that evidence may have been tampered with.”
Through further investigation, police plan to decide whether to apply for arrest warrants for Zhao and Jin. If such a warrant is not filed or approved within 48 hours, both chiefs will be released.
Due to the temporary absence of two key police officials, Deputy Chief of the Korea National Police Lee Ho-young will serve as acting chief, while Choi Hyun-seok, chief of the National Police Life Safety Section, will take over as police chief.
Later that morning, police officials attempted to raid the Blue House, dispatching 18 investigators to obtain records related to cabinet meetings before martial law was declared in early December. Since the Presidential Security Agency did not allow law enforcement officers to enter the presidential palace under the Criminal Procedure Code, they withdrew the seizure attempt at around 7:40 p.m. Typically, authorities can execute an arrest warrant within a week after it is issued.
A police official said that the presidential palace voluntarily submitted “very limited” documents and information to the police and that other supporting documents would be submitted later. Police could not confirm exactly what type of documents they were expecting or when they would receive it. The official added that the investigative team would not make a second attempt in the future because Yoon's office agreed to submit evidence voluntarily.
A police official added that the search and seizure warrant names Yoon as a suspect on sedition and sedition charges, and that the scope of the investigation includes the Cabinet Room, the Presidential Secret Service, the National Police 101 Security Unit and the Joint Police Department. beside. On December 3, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Building also housed the combat headquarters of the martial law forces.
Police officials said Wednesday's emergency raids targeted the Korea National Police Agency, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and the National Assembly Guard.
Although police obtained a seizure warrant, they were prevented from entering the Blue House due to procedural oversights, at least initially. They told reporters that police officials would have to meet with relevant Blue House representatives to formally execute the arrest warrant, but they could not.
Additionally, a presidential official said it responded to police search and seizure attempts “in accordance with the laws and precedents established by previous administrations” and that the presidential office did not “reject search and seizure attempts.”
It was unclear whether Yoon was inside the presidential palace when investigators arrived Wednesday morning to conduct the raid.
Yin faces charges of rebellion, rebellion and abuse of power for briefly declaring martial law on December 3.
Recent testimony from senior military figures has suggested that Yoon was the mastermind of martial law, and police are considering the possibility of an emergency arrest. At a briefing by the South Korean National Police on Monday, Oh Jong-soo, director of the National Investigation Office, told the media that there was “no limit on the scope of the police investigation” into the incident.
