Special Counsel Updates Timeline of Yoon Suk Yeol Martial Law Probe After Questioning Ex-Joint Chiefs Chairman
Investigators now place the start of planning about a year before the December 2024 attempt. Earlier probes reached differing conclusions on timing.
yna.co.krKr reported Monday. Assistant special counsel Kim Ji-mi said in a briefing that the team reached this conclusion after questioning former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Kim Myung-soo. Kim Myung-soo told investigators last month that Yoon asked him on Nov.
29, 2023 whether he would do anything Yoon ordered. Yoon flew into a rage when Kim Myung-soo said he would follow orders if they were just orders, according to the special counsel team led by Kwon Chang-young. The team has left open the possibility that Yoon's alleged remarks were part of preliminary efforts to recruit top military officials for his martial law bid.
Kwon's team earlier said Yoon appeared to be preparing for martial law since the first half of 2024. That assessment came after questioning a military counterintelligence official. A separate special counsel team that ended its mandate late last year determined that martial law preparations took place before October 2023.
The team cited a notebook belonging to a retired general convicted in connection with Yoon's martial law bid. A Seoul court did not recognize the notebook as evidence during Yoon's insurrection trial. Yoon was sentenced to life imprisonment over his failed martial law bid.
This file photo, taken Sept. 26, 2025, shows former President Yoon Suk Yeol entering a courtroom at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul.
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