a day ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Did South Korea's Yoon Suk-yeol order drone missions into Pyongyang to justify martial law?
A secret recording suggesting
South Korea 's former president
Yoon Suk-yeol may have ordered drone missions over Pyongyang in a bid to trigger a North Korean military response is now at the centre of the investigation into his December
martial law debacle
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Special prosecutors probing Yoon for insurrection and foreign aggression incitement believe the audio files could amount to a 'smoking gun' – offering evidence he sought to manufacture a crisis to legitimise extending his presidency, observers said.
'Yoon now faces allegations that, instead of fulfilling his duty to protect the people as commander-in-chief, he jeopardised their safety in an unlawful attempt to extend his rule,' Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies, told This Week in Asia.
The former leader declared martial law on December 3, citing unspecified threats from
North Korea and 'anti-state forces' threatening democracy, as well as a legislative deadlock caused by opposition control of the National Assembly.
'If the North had responded militarily, it could have sparked armed conflict along the border – and potentially escalated into an all-out war,' Yang said.
Former president Yoon Suk-yeol arrives for questioning over charges related to the December 3 martial law imposition at the special prosecutor's office in Seoul on June 28. Photo: EPA
According to reports from both the conservative Dong-A Ilbo and the progressive Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper, special prosecutors investigating Yoon on insurrection charges have secured a recording of military officers quoting Drone Operations Commander Kim Yong-dae as saying that the drone missions were ordered by 'V' – believed to be shorthand for the former president.
