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Then-President Yoon Suk-yeol declares emergency martial law during an emergency address from the presidential office in Seoul on the evening of Dec. 3, 2024. (Shin So-young/Hankyoreh)

Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, with the objective of removing political opponents and seizing broad power for himself, investigators led by the special counsel Cho Eun-seok concluded on Monday upon completing a 180-day inquiry into the crisis that shocked Koreans last December.  

However, some see the probe’s failure to determine why Yoon chose Dec. 3 to carry out his gambit, as well as its lack of clarity on alleged acts of treason, as shortcomings. 

During a briefing on Monday announcing the final findings of his team’s investigation, Cho said that Yoon had begun preparations for martial law “prior to October 2023,” and that the former president had “tried to forcibly halt political activities and hamper the functions of the National Assembly by mobilizing the military.”

“We confirmed that he declared martial law to establish an emergency legislative organ that would replace the National Assembly, through which he planned to wrest control of the legislative and judicial branches to remove opponents and monopolize and retain power,” he added.  

Cho has remained out of the spotlight for the duration of his team’s six-month inquiry into last year’s crisis. On Monday, however, he personally announced his team’s findings. 

Based on writings in a notebook found in the possession of Roh Sang-won, a former Defense Intelligence Command chief suspected of being the real mastermind behind the botched self-coup attempt, and other evidence, the special counsel said that Yoon began plans for martial law before October 2023, and that he started planting the idea of the necessity of martial law in the heads of key military leaders in March of last year. 

From then on, the special counsel argued, he plotted with former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun to organize military leadership in preparation to declare martial law. 

Cho Eun-seok, the special counsel who oversaw an independent investigation into last year’s martial law crisis and alleged acts of insurrection and treason, announces the findings of his team’s investigation on Dec. 15, 2025, at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office in the city’s Seocho District. (Yonhap)

The special counsel concluded that preparations for martial law occurred in the form of personnel reshuffles in the military as well. 

Shin Won-sik, who voiced opposition to the plan to declare martial law in September and October of last year, was replaced as defense minister by Kim Yong-hyun, who was the head of the Presidential Security Service at the time. 

Park An-su, the chief of staff of the Republic of Korea Army at the time, apparently ensured that generals amenable to Yoon’s plans were the ones lined up for promotions. 

After forming his martial law lineup, Yoon and his aides led an “abnormal military operation” to provoke North Korea into engaging in an armed clash to justify declaring martial law. But when that failed, Yoon declared that the Democratic Party had inflicted a “paralysis in governance” to justify martial law, the special counsel concluded.  

Regarding remarks that Yoon reportedly made in November 2022 about pointing guns at politicians and “mowing them down,” Cho said that they “confirm that he intended to brand all opposition as ‘anti-state forces’ and planned to remove them under martial law.” 

Since launching its investigation on June 18, the special counsel team has focused its efforts on uncovering how key figures in the Yoon administration may have aided or abetted insurrection and treason. 

After Yoon was released from pre-trial detention after a court order in March, the special counsel team indicted him again on charges of aggravated obstruction of justice. It also indicted former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, and former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae on charges of aiding in the insurrection. 

The special counsel further indicted Yoon, Kim Yong-hyun, and Yeo In-hyeong of the Defense Counterintelligence Command on charges of treason in the form of an operation that had involved flying drones over Pyongyang in order to induce a reaction from North Korea and incite public paranoia about North Korea. 

Following Cho’s briefing on his investigation’s findings, the ruling Democratic Party called for a second special counsel investigation, arguing that the real motives behind the insurrection and suspected treason had not been revealed. 

By Jung Hwan-bong, staff reporter; Kang Jae-gu, staff reporter

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