Yoon declared martial law to seize power: prosecutors

Dec 16, 2025, 08:16 am

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Cho Eun-seok, special prosecutor, announces the final investigation results into the Dec. 3 martial law case involving charges of insurrection and foreign aggression at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho District, Seoul, on December 15. / Source: Yonhap News

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared the Dec. 3 martial law with the aim of dismantling South Korea’s separation of powers and monopolizing and maintaining authority, according to the findings of a special counsel investigation released on December 15.

The report concluded that Yoon’s actions amounted to an attempt to shake the constitutional foundations of the Republic of Korea, which are built on checks and balances among the legislative, judicial and executive branches, and to revive what prosecutors described as the specter of dictatorship.

The special counsel team on insurrection cases announced the completion of its 180-day investigation at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho District. According to the findings, Yoon began preparing for martial law before October 2023. The investigation found that he planned to paralyze political activity and the National Assembly, replace it with an emergency legislative body, and use the military to seize control of the judiciary. In effect, prosecutors said, he sought to concentrate executive, legislative and judicial power in his own hands.

The special counsel concluded that Yoon had repeatedly spoken of the president’s “extraordinary emergency powers” as early as the beginning of his term in May 2022, and had carried out behind-the-scenes preparations from 2023 onward.

Investigators also found that Yoon sought to brand those who opposed or challenged his beliefs as “anti-state forces” and to eliminate them through martial law. According to the probe, during a dinner with the leadership of the People Power Party on November 25, 2022, Yoon said, “I have emergency powers. Even if I’m executed, I’ll wipe them all out,” expressing hostility toward political opponents.

In July last year, Yoon reportedly referred to former People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon—whom he had appointed as justice minister—as a “communist” in remarks to Kang Ho-pil, then vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In October of the same year, at a dinner with military commanders, he was found to have said, “Bring Han Dong-hoon in. I’ll shoot him dead.” The investigation also revealed that Yoon attempted to arrest judges who had issued rulings unfavorable to him.

The special counsel team determined that there were no legitimate grounds for declaring martial law and that Yoon exploited the political situation at the time to justify the move.

The investigation further found that Yoon attempted to portray the results of last April’s general election as a “rigged election by anti-state forces” and sought to use that claim as a pretext to suspend the National Assembly’s functions, including by attempting to occupy the National Election Commission. Prosecutors said Yoon also tried, but failed, to provoke a military response from North Korea as a trigger for declaring martial law.

Allegations that first lady Kim Keon Hee was involved in the martial law plan were found to be unsubstantiated.

#Yoon Suk Yeol #martial law #special counsel investigation #insurrection charges #separation of powers