S.Korean President Yoon ordered mobilization of troops, reveals ex-defense chief amid martial law probe
South Korean investigators transfer probe to prosecution, seek impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol's indictment over martial law bid
Suspended South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol attends first impeachment hearing in Seoul
ANKARA
Former South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun revealed on Thursday that impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered troops to mobilize ahead of imposing a brief martial law last month.
Kim, who testified in the Constitutional Court during the fourth hearing on Yoon's impeachment, said he proposed mobilizing up to 60,000 troops, but Yoon ordered only a "small number," Yonhap News reported.
"It was different from my thinking, but because it was President Yoon's order, I respected it and prepared for it. I had doubts that martial law could be enforced, so I asked the president something to the effect of, 'Is this martial law?'" he was quoted by the news agency as telling the court.
Kim, who is being held in a detention center, was Yoon's first Cabinet member indicted last month for his alleged role in the Dec. 3 martial law declaration.
Yoon, who attended his impeachment trial in the Constitutional Court for the second time on Thursday, returned to Seoul Detention Center.
Separately, South Korea's anti-corruption agency filed a request with prosecutors on Thursday to indict Yoon over his failed martial law bid last month.
The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said it requested that Yoon be charged with leading an insurrection and abusing power as it transferred the case to the prosecution.
Yoon, who plunged the nation into its worst political crisis in modern history through his short-lived martial law declaration on Dec. 3, is facing insurrection charges.
He is currently being held at the Seoul Detention Centre while a trial at the Constitutional Court is also underway to determine whether to uphold or dismiss his impeachment by the National Assembly.
The court must decide on the matter within a 180-day period that began on Dec. 14, the date the National Assembly voted to impeach Yoon.
If his impeachment is upheld, the disgraced president will be removed from office, triggering a snap election within 60 days. If it is overturned, however, he will be reinstated.
*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid and Aamir Latif
