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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s former defence minister was arrested on Sunday over his alleged role in Yoon’s declaration of martial law last week, prosecutors said.
Yoon survived an impeachment vote in the opposition-led parliament late on Saturday, prompted by Tuesday’s short-lived attempt to impose martial law, but the leader of his own party said the president would effectively be excluded from his duties before eventually stepping down.
The leader of Yoon’s People Power Party, Han Dong-hoon, in a joint press conference with the prime minister, said on Sunday that Yoon will not be involved in foreign and other state affairs before his early resignation.
Ex-Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who stepped down on Wednesday after Yoon rescinded martial law, was seen as a central figure in the debacle. He had proposed martial law to the president, according to a senior military official and the impeachment filings.
The prosecution’s special investigative team arrested Kim on Sunday and seized his mobile phone, it said in a brief statement to reporters. Before the arrest, investigators questioned Kim, who voluntarily appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday (1630 GMT on Saturday), Yonhap news agency reported.
Source: Reuters
