Kim Yong-hyun "Some Cabinet members agreed on emergency martial law at the State Council meeting... Discussed martial law with Noh Sang-won"

Former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, who appeared at the 3rd hearing of the Constitutional Court impeachment trial, testified that some members agreed to the declaration of martial law at the Cabinet meeting held just before the proclamation of martial law.

Former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun. Photo by Yonhap News

On the 23rd, in response to the question from the National Assembly's legal team asking, "Was there anyone who agreed at the Cabinet meeting?" former Minister Kim replied, "There was. It is difficult to say who."

Regarding the National Assembly's question whether the Cabinet meeting lasted only about five minutes at most, he said, "It was brief, but from 8:30 p.m. before that, Cabinet members started to enter and deliberations were conducted sequentially." When asked if the quorum was not met, he said, "It was not met, but deliberations were held," adding, "All contents were shared, and in reality, it was conducted briefly."

On that day, former Minister Kim also acknowledged that he had contacted former Intelligence Command Commander Noh Sang-won several times before the declaration of martial law. The National Assembly's legal team referred to the prosecution's investigation result that former Commander Noh visited the Minister of National Defense's office 22 times over three months. In response, former Minister Kim said, "Former Commander Noh provided a lot of help, such as giving necessary information since the hearing," and "I met him because he had to be detained for leaking Intelligence Command secrets around the end of the hearing." He also admitted to ordering former Commanders Noh Sang-won and Moon Sang-ho to collect materials related to election fraud.

Former Minister Kim claimed that he personally wrote and delivered a note containing instructions received by Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol to diplomatic envoys in Korea, asking for their support of martial law.

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