South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol has been indicted on new charges, including aiding an enemy state, over his attempt to impose martial law last year, a move prosecutors say was designed to provoke North Korea and justify emergency powers.
Special prosecutor Park Ji-young said on Monday that Yoon and senior aides “conspired to create conditions that would allow the declaration of emergency martial law,” putting national security at risk by increasing “the chance of armed confrontation” with Pyongyang.
Investigators cited a memo from Yoon’s former counter-intelligence chief that urged the military to strike “places that must make them [North Korea] lose face so that a response is inevitable,” such as Pyongyang or Wonsan.
Yoon, ousted by the Constitutional Court in April, is already on trial for insurrection. He denies wrongdoing, saying the martial law order was meant to “protect democracy from antistate elements,” not to seize power.
If convicted, Yoon could face the death penalty, a stunning fall for the former prosecutor-turned-president who once vowed to uphold South Korea’s democratic institutions.
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