hankyoreh

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. (pool photo)

Prosecutors under Cho Eun-seok, the special counsel who oversaw an independent investigation into last year’s martial law crisis in South Korea, suspect that the reason former President Yoon Suk-yeol chose to declare martial law in early December of 2024 was to prevent an American intervention.

Ever since martial law was revoked in an early-morning vote by hastily convened lawmakers on Dec. 4, there has been considerable speculation in the political world about why Yoon decided to declare martial law on Dec. 3, a date that was highly impractical for a variety of reasons.

When Yoon made the declaration at 10:28 pm on Tuesday, Dec. 3, many lawmakers were at restaurants near the National Assembly. If he had waited until the weekend, lawmakers would probably have been in their respective districts instead and would have had a harder time reaching the National Assembly for the crucial vote.

“It’s impossible to say definitively why Dec. 3 was chosen as the date for declaring martial law. However, [former President Park Chung-hee’s] Yushin constitution of October [1972] was also announced during a US presidential election. It appears that the chaotic months after the presidential election and before the inauguration were used to prevent the US from interfering with troop movements,” said Park Ji-yeong, Cho’s deputy special counsel, while announcing the final findings of the investigation on Monday.

“Martial law was declared during the chaotic time around the US presidential election. In effect, [martial law] is certain to fail if it’s not recognized by the US. That’s something [Yoon] learned from the history of martial law declarations. We think that’s probably why he chose that time frame,” Park said.

Donald Trump was elected to a second term as president on Nov. 6, 2024, about one month before Yoon’s martial law declaration, and he returned to the White House on Jan. 20, 2025. So Yoon may have chosen Dec. 3 as the fateful day based on his assumption that the US would probably not actively intervene in the Korean political situation during the handover of power.

“Cho Tae-yong, the director of the National Intelligence Service at the time, was supposed to leave the country on Dec. 4 [the day after martial law was declared] for a meeting with the person nominated to lead the CIA; their meeting was scheduled for Dec. 5,” Park added.

Park also noted that the phrase “work with the US, give the US advance notice” appeared in the notebook of Roh Sang-won, a former chief of the Defense Intelligence Command who is believed to have played a key unofficial role in organizing the martial law declaration as a civilian.

But Park said she couldn’t confirm why the date of Dec. 3 had been chosen during the two-month-long transfer of power in the US.

“We couldn’t find any evidence that the date was chosen to facilitate arrests [of lawmakers and other figures], nor could we find any traces of shamanistic meddling despite the rumors going around,” she said.

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

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]