South Korea: Parliamentary committee to summon Yoon as witness in hearing on martial law declaration

Seoul, Jan 14 South Korea's parliamentary special committee on Tuesday decided to summon impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol as a witness in its hearing on his botched martial law declaration scheduled for next week along with other key officials involved in the case.

The committee plans to hold its first hearing on January 22, with Yoon and 75 other officials, including former defence and interior ministers Kim Yong-hyun and Lee Sang-min, called as witnesses.

The special 18-member committee was launched late last month to look into Yoon's insurrection allegations until February 13.

Earlier in the day, the committee conducted its first inquiry into the defence ministry and other military commanders allegedly involved in the case.

Key witnesses, including Army Chief of Staff Gen. Park An-su, who served as martial law commander, and Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-keun, chief of the Army Special Warfare Command, were present at the session.

Lt. Gen. Yeo In-hyung, head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, who is suspected of sending troops to the National Assembly and the National Election Commission, and ordering the arrest of the leaders of the ruling and main Opposition parties, did not show up at the meeting.

During the session, lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) mainly clashed over the legitimacy of the martial law declaration.

The PPP also criticised the DP's decision to include allegations that Yoon committed 'treason' by attempting to deliberately incite foreign aggression in a new special probe bill, Yonhap news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Opposition lawmakers took issue with the mobilisation of the military during the martial law imposition.

"The military mobilised during martial law was on standby with over 180,000 rounds of ammunition," DP Rep. Min Hong-chul said in his inquiry into Kwak, criticising it as an attempt to "turn Seoul into a second Gwangju" akin to the 1980 massacre of pro-democracy protests in the southwestern city.

Source: IANS