South Korean police have imposed foreign-travel bans on former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, both of whom briefly served as acting presidents during last year’s constitutional crisis, Al Jazeera reports.
The restrictions were quietly applied in mid-May and surfaced after the pair were questioned for hours by a special police unit investigating suspected insurrection connected to ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol’s abortive attempt to impose martial law.
Investigators are examining whether Han and Choi resisted or facilitated Yoon’s emergency decree on 3 December 2024, when troops and armored vehicles were deployed in Seoul after the then-president claimed “antistate” forces had infiltrated government. Parliament revoked the order within hours, but the episode plunged the nation into its worst constitutional crisis in decades.
Yoon was impeached, formally removed from office in April, and now stands trial on insurrection charges that carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment or, in exceptional cases, the death penalty.
Both former acting presidents insist they opposed Yoon’s actions, yet senior military and police witnesses have testified that officials were instructed to detain rival politicians during the three-hour declaration. A separate travel ban had already been placed on former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, who is also under investigation.
The widening probe unfolds as South Koreans prepare for a snap presidential election on 3 June, called to replace Yoon. The conservative People Power Party selected hard-line former labour minister Kim Moon-soo after an internal schism forced Han from the race, while liberal front-runner Lee Jae-myung leads most polls.
Authorities say additional interviews and evidence-gathering will continue in the coming weeks, keeping the political spotlight on the fallout from Yoon’s short-lived martial-law attempt even as voters head to the polls.
