First Hearing of the Special Committee on Internal Affairs... Attendance Order Issued to President Yoon for Nonappearance

Summons Orders Issued at the Initiative of the Opposition
Targeting President Yoon Seok-yeol and Six Others

Yonhap News

The National Assembly held the first hearing on the 22nd to investigate the truth behind the December 3 emergency martial law. When President Yoon Seok-yeol, a key witness and the person involved in the martial law, did not attend, the opposition party led the issuance of a summons order.

At 10 a.m. that day, the National Assembly’s “Special Committee for the National Investigation into the Truth of the Insurrection Charges through the Declaration of Emergency Martial Law by the Yoon Seok-yeol Government” held its first hearing and proposed the issuance of summons orders for seven key witnesses, including President Yoon, former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, and former Commander of the Republic of Korea Army Intelligence Command Noh Sang-won. The motion was passed with 11 votes in favor and 8 against out of 18 members present. According to the summons order, they must attend the special committee hearing by 2 p.m. that day.

Earlier, the special committee had approved 76 people, including President Yoon, as witnesses for the first hearing. However, President Yoon did not attend on the day and had not submitted a reason for his absence by the previous day.

The day before, members of the special committee from both ruling and opposition parties visited the underground bunker B1 of the Army Capital Defense Command to conduct an on-site investigation. During the investigation, it was found that during the martial law, General Yeo In-hyung, Commander of the Army Counterintelligence Command, had ordered to check whether about 50 politicians could be detained in the bunker. On the other hand, President Yoon claimed at the third hearing of the Constitutional Court impeachment trial the day before that he had not ordered the arrest of politicians.

Han Byung-do, an opposition party secretary from the Democratic Party of Korea, said, "The core of the hearing is President Yoon’s attendance," and demanded, "Since he made statements directly contradicting key evidence at the Constitutional Court the day before, please immediately issue a summons order." On the other hand, Kim Seong-won, a ruling party secretary from the People Power Party, said, "This is the first time I have seen the list of seven witnesses for whom summons orders are being issued," and added, "I cannot agree to proceed without consultation."

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