Special counsel likely to mull forcing Yoon to comply with summons
The measure is expected as the former president snubbed two consecutive summons made by the special counsel team — led by Cho Eun-suk — without a legitimate reason.
On July 11, the Assistant Special Counsel Park Ji-young previously announced, 'If the absence is deemed justifiable, it may be accepted. But if not, the special counsel team will carry out the investigation procedure in line with the Criminal Procedure Act,' suggesting the team will consider sending personnel to bring Yoon in by force if he continues to refuse to comply with the investigation.
The special counsel team requested Yoon, who has been held at the Seoul Detention Center over evidence-tampering concerns since July 10, to appear at the special counsel's office for questioning at 2 p.m. Monday. The former president snubbed the initial summons for the special counsel investigation after submitting a written statement saying his absence was health-related.
Yoon's legal representatives argued that Yoon suffered from both diabetes and eye diseases, and that the poor conditions at the detention center, including extreme heat and restrictions on outdoor exercise, had led to his health deteriorating.
But the Justice Ministry disputed the claims of mistreatment, explaining that Yoon's workout time and room temperature were no different from those of ordinary inmates.
According to the special counsel team, it has asked the detained former president to appear for questioning as no specific health issues have been identified by the correctional authorities during Yoon's initial medical examination upon admission and throughout his five-day detention period.
Yoon had also refused to appear for the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials' investigation during his first detention period from mid-January to early March, arguing that the agency did not have jurisdiction to interrogate him.
The former president's unwillingness to cooperate with the CIO's questioning led the prosecutor to indict him without questioning him in late January.
Though the special counsel team has the option of trying to question Yoon at the detention center, the legal circle believes a forced summons is more likely, as the special counsel has maintained a swift and aggressive approach against Yoon since it officially began its work in mid-June.
Former President Park Geun-hye was questioned through an in-person visit at the Seoul Detention Center in 2017. The special counsel team also made multiple attempts to investigate the former President Lee Myung-bak, but the interrogation was not conducted due to his repeated refusals to cooperate.
Though additional questioning was not made, Lee was indicted with detention in 2018.
Meanwhile, the special counsel summoned Park Jong-joon, former head of the Presidential Security Service, and the PSS' head of security and safety Lee Jin-ha, to look into allegations that Yoon instructed the PSS to plock police and the CIO from executing a warrant in January and that he ordered the deletion of records from secure phones used by three military commanders who were key personnel involved in imposing martial law.
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9 hours ago
- Korea Herald
[Lee Kyong-hee] Fake news, false reports, conspiracy theories
Within hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3, a rabid right-wing YouTuber contended that 99 Chinese spies were apprehended at an election management facility and transported to a US military base in Okinawa, Japan. Thereafter, social networks were rife with rumors that the Chinese accounted for 30 percent of anti-Yoon protesters demanding his impeachment. Nonsensical online demagoguery? Of course. But to many supporters of the disgraced YouTube-addicted former president, it rang true. After all, during his turbulent presidency, Yoon often blamed Chinese influence on domestic politics and elections without providing evidence. The Yoon supporters eventually descended on an enclave of lamb skewer restaurants mostly run by ethnic Koreans who left China for their ancestral homeland in search of better opportunities. Screams of 'Go back to China!' and 'Commies, disappear quickly from the Republic of Korea!' filled the air near Konkuk University, eastern Seoul. The pathetic scene of violence evoked a sense of deja vu. Rewind to July 1931, when Japan hyped a minor dispute between local Chinese farmers and Korean settlers in Manchuria to justify its aggression. The dispute began when a group of Koreans subleased land outside of Wanpaoshan village, north of Changchun, Jilin province, and began digging an irrigation ditch in an area not included in the sublease. Some 400 Chinese farmers, armed with farming tools, confronted the Koreans, and the Japanese consulate in Changchun dispatched police under the pretext of protecting subjects of their empire. The Chinese security authorities also sent police. The clash ended with several Chinese wounded, but Japanese police officers and Korean farmers unharmed. To ignite anti-Chinese sentiment, the Japanese colonial authorities had Korean newspapers publish fabricated reports claiming that hundreds of Koreans were killed during the so-called 'Wanpaoshan Incident.' Anti-Chinese riots erupted across Korea, causing hundreds of Chinese casualties and major property damage. Meanwhile, anti-Korean riots in China continued under Japan's wartime propaganda. Months later, a New York Times dispatch from Changchun dated Nov. 4 said: 'Fully 10,000 Korean farmers have been massacred by Chinese or slain while defending their homesteads during the last six weeks in Jilin Province alone, according to an estimate given out here today by a Japanese General commanding a division of 5,500 troops.' The media manipulation thus turned a minor skirmish between farming groups into a major conflict, devastating an ethnic community and eventually dealing a fatal blow to Korean independence movements in the broader Manchurian region. Fast forward to chaotic post-liberation Korea in 1945. Freed at last from four decades of harsh foreign rule, Koreans failed to achieve national unity and fell victim to great power politics. Again, newspapers played a role -- significant, if not decisive -- in the partition of the peninsula under two contesting regimes. In the summer of 1945, Koreans expected their country would quickly become free and independent again. They were not aware that the big powers, under US initiative, were considering a four-power trusteeship that might last as long as 40 to 50 years. The trusteeship issue was resolved by the foreign ministers of the US, the UK and the Soviet Union, who convened in Moscow in December 1945. Their communique, adopting the Soviet draft concerning the Korean question, stipulated a four-power trusteeship for up to five years to supervise a unified provisional Korean government, which would be established by a US-Soviet joint commission. On Christmas Day, before the announcement of the final decision, the United Press reported from Washington that 'Secretary of State Byrns went to Russia reportedly with instructions to urge immediate independence as opposed to the Russian thesis of trusteeship.' Korean media carried the story on Dec. 27, each editing and compiling it as they saw fit. The news bombarded the already polarized political scene. The idea of 'trusteeship' itself was unacceptable; anti-trusteeship became a strong rallying point for the right. The rightist Dong-A Ilbo had an inflammatory headline: 'Soviet Union Asserts Trusteeship; United States Asserts Immediate Independence.' The rightists seized upon the opportunity to denounce communists as 'country-selling Soviet stooges.' The US Military Government in Korea added to the confusion by deliberately implying that trusteeship was solely a Soviet policy. Amid extreme confrontation between the right and the left, leading politicians from both camps were assassinated. The turmoil ever deepened. The North-South division perpetuated. Much about the controversial newspaper reports on the Moscow conference, regarded as among the worst Korean press performances to date, remains a mystery. None of the newspapers offered an apology for false reporting, disregarding the basic principles of fact-checking and verification, nor did they elucidate the background of their reporting. Most recently, the press coverage of the visit by Morse Tan, a Korean American law professor and former US ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, raises questions about his identity as well as evidence of his claims about election fraud in South Korea and President Lee Jae-myung's childhood. The press should focus more on fact-finding to enhance accountability and win back the public's trust, which has been lost to social media. Today's information disorder and consequent conundrum, complicated by the proliferation of new media and the ever-present foreign interference, requires unwavering journalistic integrity and professionalism. News consumers also need to improve their information literacy. Ultimately, they get the media they deserve.
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
Yoon's insurrection trial on hold as courts begin summer recess
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol's criminal insurrection trial over his short-lived martial law imposition, will be put on hold, as courts across the country begin a summer recess on Monday. The Seoul Central District Court, where Yoon's trial is being held, is scheduled to enter a two-week annual summer recess period from Monday to Aug. 8, a notice posted on its website showed Sunday. During this period, the court will have a reduced schedule for hearings. For all civil cases, hearings and preparatory and conciliation proceedings will be temporarily halted. Dates for criminal trials without detention and hearings and trials that 'do not have a significant impact on human rights' will not be held in the cited period. However, hearings on motions for provisional attachment or preliminary injunctions of civil cases, reviews of criminal trials for defendants held in custody, detention hearings before arrest and related reviews, will be carried out as scheduled during recess. Other trials and proceedings can also continue, if the court deems it necessary. Other courts nationwide will adopt similar rules during their respective summer recess period, which would take place around late July to mid-August. The Seoul Central District Court has so far held 12 hearings for Yoon's insurrection trial. Yoon has not attended his trial for three consecutive hearings, citing poor health. He is currently detained at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, just south of the capital. After the two-week recess wraps-up, Yoon faces a separate trial at the Seoul Central District Court, over additional charges of abuse of power and violating the Presidential Records Act, tied to his martial law bid. The charges were brought by the special counsel team led by prosecutor Cho Eun-seok and the first preparatory hearing is scheduled for Aug. 19. The next hearings in the trials of Yoon's aides, including that of former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, will not take place until mid-August. Kim has been charged with insurrection and abuse of power for deploying the military to the National Assembly in an unsuccessful attempt to block lawmakers from voting to overturn Yoon's martial law decree.
Korea Herald
a day ago
- Korea Herald
Pro-Yoon lawmaker quizzed in special counsel probe
Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, a lawmaker of the conservative People Power Party, was quizzed Sunday by investigators looking into influence-peddling allegations against Kim Keon Hee, former President Yoon Suk Yeol's wife. The five-time lawmaker, who was considered one of Yoon Suk Yeol's leading supporters, appeared for questioning at the office of the special counsel leading the investigation. Asked about his stance on claims he had helped Yoon and Kim interfere in the party's nomination process for a National Assembly by-election, he said he would "faithfully cooperate with" the investigation. His questioning follows a search and seizure operation to raid his home and his office at the National Assembly on July 8. The 62-year-old lawmaker, who led the People Power Party's candidate nomination for a June 2022 parliamentary by-election, was allegedly involved in arranging for the People Power Party to choose Kim Young-sun as candidate for a legislative seat representing a constituency in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. The constituency was considered a right-wing stronghold, and Kim was nominated by lawmaker Yoon to run for the by-election as the candidate for the People Power Party. Kim won the election and served in the National Assembly until May 2024. About a month before Yoon's botched martial law attempt, the Democratic Party of Korea revealed in late October a recording of a phone conversation between the former president and Myung Tae-kyun, who was a political consultant for the ex-president during his presidential campaign. In the phone call, Yoon, who won the presidential election in March 2022, told Myung that he had insisted to Rep. Yoon that Kim Young-sun be chosen to run for a parliamentary seat. Myung, who ran an election polling and forecasting company, said he would "never forget kindness." The phone call was recorded just before Yoon was inaugurated in May 2022, according to the Democratic Party. A separate probe by the prosecution in December indicated that Kim had wired some 80 million won ($58,000) in 11 installments in 2022 to Myung, in violation of the Political Funds Act. Both Kim Young-sun and Myung were held awaiting trial for about five months but were released in April. The criminal court cases against them are ongoing. While appearing for questioning Sunday, Yoon declined to answer a reporter's question over whether he had a discussion with the former president about candidate nominations.
