hankyoreh

President Yoon Suk-yeol (right) speaks to then-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun during a military parade for Armed Forces Day on Oct. 1, 2024. (Yonhap)

Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun is said to have remarked that he wanted to “bulldoze” the National Assembly with tanks. The comment was reportedly made on the morning of Dec. 3, the day President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law. This raises suspicions that there was an attempt to mobilize the military’s armored division to neutralize resistance from citizens and the National Assembly as soon as martial law was declared. 

The Democratic Party’s team for investigating Yoon’s insurrection attempt held a press conference on Thursday morning at the National Assembly’s press center, where it announced that it had secured testimony that during a luncheon at the Defense Convention Center on Dec. 3, at around 11:40 am, Kim remarked that the National Assembly was “fooling around with the defense budget,” and said, “We need to bulldoze them with tanks.”

“Bang Jeong-hwan, the Defense Ministry’s deputy policy director, took the afternoon off on that day and went to the Korea Defense Intelligence Command office in Pangyo,” the investigation team announced. The team called for an investigation into not only Bang, but to Cho Chang-rae, Bang’s superior who approved his afternoon leave.

“Someone met Kim at his official residence at dawn on Dec. 3. It was a civilian surnamed Yang,” the team continued, calling for an additional investigation into Yang. The Defense Intelligence Command’s (DIC) Pangyo office is where over 30 troops under the command, including those from the Headquarters of Intelligence Detachment unit — a special unit responsible for such matters as sending secret agents to North Korea — were on standby after the martial law declaration. 

A team of Democratic Party lawmakers, led by Choo Mi-ae (center), formed to determine the facts of the president’s martial law order, hold a press conference near the presidential office on Dec. 16, 2024, to call for a thorough investigation into suspicions of insurrection. (Yonhap)

The team of Democrats is focusing on the fact that Bang, DIC commander Moon Sang-ho, the DIC’s head of interrogations, and commander Koo Sam-hoe of the 2nd Armored Brigade, convened at the Pangyo office on Dec. 3 at around 6 pm. The lawmakers suspect intentions of mobilizing armored units to neutralize resistance from citizens and the National Assembly following the president’s martial law declaration. 

“The 2nd Armored Brigade is stationed in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, and is the closest armored brigade to Seoul. It commands three battalions of K1A2 tanks,” said Democratic Party lawmaker Park Sun-won. 

“We need to confirm if Koo attended this meeting without the approval of his superiors or without reporting it to his superiors,” Park added.  

During a briefing on Thursday, Army spokesperson Seo Woo-seok said, “There were no prior preparations for the dispatch of troops [of the armored brigade].”

Around the time of the DIC meeting, Yoon hosted a banquet at the president’s safe house in Seoul’s Samcheong neighborhood. It’s been revealed that not only Kim Yong-hyun, National Police Agency Commissioner Cho Ji-ho, and Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency chief Kim Bong-sik attended this banquet, but that Park An-su, the Army chief of staff, was in attendance as well.   

Up until now, Park had claimed that after having dinner with junior staff at the Defense Ministry’s cafeteria in Yongsan on that day, he spent the next three hours at the Army chief of staff’s quarters in Seoul. During the banquet at his safe house, Yoon delivered written instructions to the two police chiefs about which public organizations to occupy following the martial law declaration. 

“We suspect Kim [Yong-hyun] gave orders related to a military operation around this time,” Park added.

“We need to verify those orders right away.”

By Kim Chae-woon, staff reporter; Jeong Hye-min, staff reporter

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