South Korea’s Yoon ignored cabinet opposition to martial law: prosecutors

Yoon plunged the country into political chaos on Dec. 3 with the failed declaration of martial law and has since holed up in his residence, surrounded by hundreds of security officers resisting arrest attempts.

The prosecution’s full 83-page report to charge former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said the country’s then-prime minister, foreign minister and finance minister expressed reservations on the night of the decision.

They made clear their concerns about the economic and diplomatic consequences in a cabinet meeting, which Yoon called before his short-lived takeover.

“The economy would face serious difficulties and I fear a loss of international credibility,” then-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo told Yoon, according to the report seen by AFP.

Han became acting president after Yoon was stripped of his duties, but he was also accused by opposition parliamentarians who argued that he rejected demands to complete Yoon’s impeachment process and bring him to justice.

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul reportedly said martial law would have “diplomatic repercussions but would also destroy the achievements South Korea has built over the past 70 years.”

Acting President Choi Sang-mok, also Finance Minister, argued that the decision would have “devastating effects on the country’s economy and credibility.”

Despite the objections, Yoon said there was “no turning back,” claiming the opposition, which won in a landslide in April’s parliamentary elections, would lead the country to collapse.

“Neither the economy nor diplomacy will work,” he reportedly said.

An earlier summary of the report provided to media last month revealed that Yoon authorized the military to fire their weapons to enter parliament during the failed attempt.

The suspended president’s lawyer, Yoon Kab-keun, dismissed the prosecutors’ report.

He told AFP that the indictment report alone does not constitute an insurrection and “does not fit legally, and there is no evidence either.”

Yoon remains under investigation on charges of insurrection and faces arrest, prison or, in the worst case scenario, the death penalty.

The Constitutional Court set January 14 for the start of the impeachment trial against Yoon, which if he does not attend would continue in his absence.

The court may take into consideration prosecutors’ report on Kim, one of the first charged in the attempt to implement martial law.