South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk-yeol began plotting to impose martial law barely a year after taking office, aiming to cling to power by provoking a military confrontation with North Korea, special investigators have found.
Announcing the results of a 180-day investigation on Monday, special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk said Yoon and his closest aides had devised a scheme to form a military junta, suspend democratic institutions, seize control of the legislature and judiciary and eliminate all political opposition.
“It has been confirmed that Yoon and his inner circle had been preparing to declare martial law since before October 2023,” Cho said during a nationally televised briefing. “To fabricate a pretext for imposing martial law, they attempted to provoke North Korea into a military response through abnormal military operations.”
Prosecutors have brought charges against 24 people, including Yoon, who is accused of obstruction of justice, aiding the enemy and perjury.
He had already been charged, before the special counsel’s appointment in June, with insurrection and abuse of power related to the same martial plot.
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