Martial law without minutes...Possibility of 'procedural illegality'

[Anchor]
There has been a series of testimony that President Yoon Suk Yeol did not go through the deliberation of the State Council prescribed by law when he declared emergency martial law.

Prosecutors and police are also looking into whether the procedures were properly followed in the process of declaring martial law.

Reporter Youngsoo Kim reports.

[Reporter]
This is the agenda of a Cabinet meeting submitted by the Ministry of National Defense before martial law was declared in 1980.

I also wrote down the reasons for the proposal and the grounds for it.

This agenda is subject to an extraordinary State Council meeting.

It has its own format, leaving meticulous time, participants, and discussion results.

The creation of the agenda and procedures of the new military is based on the martial law law, which requires deliberation by the State Council.

Around 9 p.m. on the 3rd, 11 high-ranking government officials gathered in the presidential office just before martial law was declared,
I arrived at an interval of
hours, and one or two of them met the president in the office in the form of a virtual interview.

[Choi Sang-mok / Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Minister of Strategy and Finance (last 13th): When I asked how many people were in the hospital room with the prime minister, I heard that martial law would be declared soon.. (The prime minister also said he opposed it) He told me to go in, so I went into the office.]

Participants testified that it was not an environment for discussion and there was no official meeting.

[Cho Tae-yeol / Minister of Foreign Affairs (last 13th): (The president) said he was going out to present, so I stood up again and said, 'I beg you again. Please reconsider,' but....]

Even that, the State Council member who arrived late didn't even have a chance to meet the president.

[Jo Tae-yeol / Minister of Foreign Affairs (last 13th): Some ministers did not have the opportunity to speak out and probably did not understand how things were going.]

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security recorded that it had discussed martial law for five minutes, but there is no word left on who said what.

Prosecutors and police investigating martial law are focusing on reconstructing the situation at the time through summons investigations by ministers of ministries.

If a Cabinet meeting is not established, the declaration of martial law itself will be illegal,
President Yoon Suk Yeol's claim that he exercised legitimate authority based on the
Constitution is also expected to be hurt.

This is YTN Youngsoo Kim.


video editing;Lee Hyun-soo

Design;Jeon Wheein