NIS: "Never Received Orders from the President to 'Arrest Politicians'"

"Director Jo Taeyong, Never Received Instructions from Yoon"
"Former Deputy Director Hong Jangwon's Claims Are Completely Untrue"

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) denied that Director Cho Tae-yong was ever instructed by President Yoon Suk-yeol to 'arrest politicians' during the state of emergency. This appears to be a response to claims made by former First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won.

Cho Tae-yong, Director of the National Intelligence Service. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

The NIS stated on the 7th, "The Director of the NIS has never received an order from the President to 'arrest politicians or others,'" adding, "Former First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won claims that he reported an 'order to arrest politicians and others' to the Director, but this is completely untrue."

Furthermore, the NIS explained, "Former First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won did not report or share this alleged order (to arrest politicians) with the Director or anyone else within the NIS from the 3rd, when he claims to have received the order, until the morning of the 6th, when the initial report was made, a period of four days."

Former First Deputy Director Hong revealed during a meeting with the National Assembly Intelligence Committee the previous day that President Yoon directly ordered the arrest of key politicians immediately after the declaration of martial law on the 3rd. According to Kim Byung-gi, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea who was present at the meeting, after declaring martial law, President Yoon called Hong and said, "Take this opportunity to arrest them all and clean up," and instructed, "I will grant the NIS counterintelligence investigative authority, so first assist and support the Counterintelligence Command."

The targets for arrest reportedly included Woo Won-shik, Speaker of the National Assembly; Han Dong-hoon, leader of the People Power Party; Cho Guk, leader of the Cho Guk Innovation Party; YouTuber Kim Eo-jun; former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myung-soo; and former Supreme Court Justice Kwon Soon-il. From the Democratic Party, Representative Lee Jae-myung, Floor Leader Park Chan-dae, Senior Supreme Council Member Kim Min-seok, and Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee Jeong Cheong-rae were named. Former First Deputy Director Hong stated that he thought such orders were 'nonsense' and that the NIS executive meeting ended without any particular conclusion.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.