Prosecutors Conduct First Interrogation of Lee Jin-woo, Defense Commanding General, After Arrest Over 'Parliament Military Deployment'

The prosecution investigating the 'December 3 Emergency Martial Law' incident summoned Lee Jin-woo, the commander of the Capital Defense Command who deployed subordinate units to the National Assembly at the time, on the 14th for questioning.

The Prosecution's Special Investigation Headquarters for Emergency Martial Law (Head: Park Se-hyun, Chief Prosecutor of Seoul High Prosecutors' Office) has been questioning Commander Lee since the morning, after summoning him as a suspect following his arrest the previous day.

Jinwoo Lee, Commander of the Capital Defense Command. Photo by Yonhap News

The prosecution arrested Commander Lee around 9 p.m. the previous day under a warrant and detained him in a military detention facility. It is reported that the prosecution obtained the arrest warrant from a military court, citing concerns over evidence destruction and flight risk after Commander Lee refused to cooperate with the investigation without justifiable reason. He is reportedly charged with rebellion and abuse of authority, among other allegations.

The prosecution forcibly secured Commander Lee, considered a key martial law military commander along with Yeo In-hyung, commander of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, and Kwak Jong-geun, commander of the Army Special Warfare Command, after he failed to comply with summons for questioning.

The prosecution is reportedly pressing Commander Lee on the circumstances and purpose of deploying the Capital Defense Command’s 1st Security Group’s 35th Special Mission Battalion and the Military Police Group to the National Assembly during the emergency martial law, as well as whether they were armed.

Since Commander Lee previously revealed that President Yoon Seok-yeol called around midnight on the day martial law was declared to ask, "How is the situation there?", the prosecution is expected to verify what instructions he received from President Yoon.

Given that the Defense Counterintelligence Command reportedly attempted to arrest 14 key figures including opposition and ruling party leaders and detain them in the Capital Defense Command’s B1 bunker or military detention center, the investigation is also expected to cover whether there were consultations regarding the Defense Counterintelligence Command and the provision of these locations.

Commander Lee is a junior by ten classes at the Korea Military Academy to former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun and was also a member of the controversial 'Official Residence Meeting' earlier this year. When Kim was serving as the head of the Presidential Security Service, he convened meetings at the Hannam-dong official residence with Commander Lee, Commander Yeo, and Commander Kwak.

The prosecution summoned Jo Baek-in, chief of staff assisting Commander Lee, as a witness for questioning the previous day.

At 2 p.m. on the same day, the prosecution plans to summon the detained former Minister Kim again for questioning.

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