Special Counsel Team Conducts Search at South Korea's Supreme Prosecutors Office

A special counsel team raided the Supreme Prosecutors Office in southern Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday, April 23, 2026, over former Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung's alleged involvement in former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law bid in 2024, Yonhap reported.

Investigators from the special counsel team carried out a search and seizure at the office, targeting Shim's suspected key role in the events surrounding Yoon's short-lived martial law decree on December 3, 2024. The team is tasked with investigating allegations related to the decree, which a district court ruled as an insurrection.

Shim is suspected of reviewing the possible dispatch of public prosecutors to a joint martial law investigation headquarters on December 3, 2024, when Yoon declared martial law. Yonhap reported that Shim held three phone calls with then Justice Minister Park Sung-jae around that date, raising suspicions that Park instructed Shim to send prosecutors to the martial law organ.

The special counsel team is also investigating Shim over his decision not to appeal a court decision in March 2025 that led to Yoon's release from custody.

Prosecutors sought to appeal the March 2025 court decision, but Shim struck down the move. Former Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung arrived at a special counsel team's office in southern Seoul for questioning as a suspect on September 30, 2025, according to Yonhap.