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President Yoon Suk-yeol (right) listens to then-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun during a military parade for Armed Forces Day on Oct. 1, 2024. (pool photo)

Prosecutors on Monday requested an arrest warrant for former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, on charges of conspiring with President Yoon Suk-yeol to carry out an attempted insurrection on Dec. 3. 
 
Prosecutors deemed Kim to have been engaged in “essential activities” related to the attempted insurrection, seeing Yoon as the ringleader. As such, the prosecutors’ investigation is expected to start with the ex-defense chief before extending to the president.
 
The prosecution service’s special headquarters for investigating the declaration of extraordinary martial law on Dec. 3, headed by Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office chief Park Se-hyeon, announced Monday night that it had requested an arrest warrant for Kim on charges of engaging in essential activities in the plotted insurrection and for the abuse of power and obstructing another from exercising their rights.  

The written arrest warrant states that Kim is suspected of conspiring with Yoon, Army Chief of Staff Park An-su, Special Warfare Command Commander Kwan Jong-geun, Capital Defense Command Commander Lee Jin-woo, and National Police Agency Commissioner Cho Ji-ho to cause riots to subvert the Constitution.
 
Prosecutors are considering Yoon and Kim to be accomplices who conspired, divided up and executed acts of insurrection. Kim is being accused of suggesting the unconstitutional and illegal invocation of martial law to Yoon while ordering his subordinates to deploy troops to the National Assembly and the National Election Commission.
 
Prosecutors did not charge Kim with being the ringleader of the insurrection but for engaging in essential activities related to the crime, a decision based on the judgment that Yoon was the final decision-maker in the declaration of martial law.
 
The Criminal Act stipulates different punishments according to the classifications of those who participate in treason — the ring leader, the persons who participate in or command a plot or engage in other essential activities, and the persons who “merely respond to the agitation, follow the lead of another or merely join in the violence.”
 
While being questioned by prosecutors, Kim reportedly argued that while he did recommend the declaration of martial law to the president and ordered the deployment of troops to the National Assembly and the National Election Commission, his actions were not “unconstitutional or illegal.”
 
As for the martial law decree, which has been slammed as unconstitutional for prescribing a ban on “any political activity,” Kim reportedly admitted to having written it himself.
 
Prosecutors have requested an arrest warrant for Kim, given that insurrection is a felony that carries a maximum statutory penalty of death and to prevent him from fleeing the country or destroying evidence.   
 
Following the commencement of the investigation, Kim deleted his account for the messenger service Telegram and is said to have replaced his phone, claiming that his phone’s screen was broken, and handed over this new phone to prosecutors.
 
Kim had been scheduled to appear before Judge Nam Cheon-kyu of the Seoul Central District Court at 3 pm on Tuesday for a substantive review of the warrant. But after the ex-defense minister waived the hearing, it’s likely that the court will review the evidence and other materials submitted by prosecutors before deciding whether Kim will be detained. 

If the arrest warrant is issued, the investigation into Kim’s superior, Yoon, and the higher-ups in the military and police who implemented martial law is expected to gain momentum.

By Jeong Hye-min, staff reporter

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