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Seok Dong-hyeon, an attorney helping put together President Yoon Suk-yeol’s legal team as he faces investigation for attempted insurrection and an impeachment trial, takes questions from the press outside of the Seoul High Prosecutor’s Office on Dec. 19, 2024. (Yonhap)

Insurrection suspect President Yoon Suk-yeol’s legal adviser vocally denied that the president ordered the arrest of parliamentary lawmakers and other political figures during his declaration of martial law on Dec. 3. Such claims stand in stark contrast to the testimonies of field commanders, who state that they were given direct orders to apprehend the lawmakers in parliament.
 
“I heard directly that Yoon never once so much as uttered the word ‘arrest’ on Dec. 3,” attorney Seok Dong-hyeon, an outside adviser to Yoon’s legal team, informed reporters in front of the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul’s Seocho District on Thursday. “The president comes from a legal background. I have heard myself that he never used the words ‘arrest’ and ‘drag out.’”
 
This is a flat-out denial of previous testimonies from military and police figures including the head of the Special Warfare Command, Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-geun, who said that he was told to “bust down the doors” and “drag lawmakers out” before they reached a quorum by the president himself; Lt. Gen. Lee Jin-woo, the commander of the Capital Defense Command who stated that Yoon lambasted him by saying, “Why aren’t you dragging those lawmakers out of there?”; and National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho Ji-ho, who said that between the hours of 11 pm on Dec. 3 and 1 am on Dec. 4, Yoon “called to order the arrest of the lawmakers in the National Assembly.”

“The number of soldiers deployed to the National Assembly did not reflect the body’s sprawling grounds, and I understand that Yoon ordered the soldiers to ‘not engage in conflict with civilians.’ I believe that order implies that the same behavior was to be expected when interacting with National Assembly lawmakers and other related parties.”
 
When reporters asked who Yoon was addressing when giving the order to avoid clashes and pointed out that live footage of soldiers breaking the National Assembly’s windows in an attempt to drag out the lawmakers existed, Seok sidestepped the issues, stating, “Such questions should be put to Yoon’s legal team.”
 
Seok relayed Yoon’s intention to “stand firm against investigations and attempts at impeachment,” but when asked if refusing to acquiesce to both police and prosecutorial investigations was the action plan, he expressed disgruntlement at the implication and declined to comment.
 
“As the head of state, the president identified the current situation as a national emergency and used the constitutional measure of declaring martial law. He will make clear the grievances of having had such responsibilities and will stand tall against any confrontations,” Seok said.
 
Further rebuffs from journalists asking why the president is blocking searches and seizures when he promised to take all legal responsibilities and demanding that he accept the documents sent by the Constitutional Court, Seok once again passed the buck, saying, “Those questions are not mine to answer.”
 
When asked if Yoon’s legal team is not filing the necessary documents with the court regarding its appointment status to stall for time ahead of the impeachment trial, Seok refuted such claims, saying, “Since the impeachment motion was so rushed, we have had to make various preparations.”
 
At a press conference with foreign reporters earlier in the day, Seok said that he organized the conference as he and other of the president’s support team “deemed it irresponsible to remain silent and unresponsive amid this chaos and asked Yoon if we could hold such an event,” adding that he and the rest of the team were “aware that there are lively debates happening online, in addition to public opinion polls.”
 
By expressing such sentiments, he confirmed that the event was being held as a public relations effort for Yoon’s camp. When asked by reporters in front of the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office if there was any evidence for the claim touting a shift in public opinion, Seok replied, “I’ve been told by a multitude of sources.”

By Bae Ji-hyun, staff reporter; Jeong Hye-min, staff reporter

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