Defense ministry launches investigative unit for martial law probe
Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back speaks during a town hall meeting at the Korea University of Technology and Education in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, Dec. 5. Yonhap
A special investigative unit under the defense ministry set sail Monday, tasked with probing allegations surrounding former ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law bid last year.
Led by the chief of the ministry's prosecution office, the team comprises some 40 officials, including investigators from a range of military investigative units, according to the defense ministry.
"The (unit) will, in particular, carry out an in-depth probe into the Defense Intelligence Command and the military's propaganda unit," Lee Kyung-ho, deputy ministry spokesperson, said in a regular press briefing.
The Defense Intelligence Command is suspected of sending troops to the election watchdog during the martial law imposition on Dec. 3 last year, while the propaganda unit is alleged to have sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets during Yoon's term in an apparent move to provoke North Korea and use escalated tension as a pretext for his martial law.
The ministry has mobilized a total of 119 officials for investigations over martial law, including those who have been dispatched to a government task force.
Earlier in the day, a special counsel that had led an investigation into the martial law bid announced that Yoon began preparations for the imposition of martial law around October 2023, more than a year before the actual declaration in December last year.