Special Prosecutor Raids Homes of Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Kim Myungsoo and Others Over 'Insurrection Involvement'

Homes of Four Officials, Including Kim Myung-soo, Searched

The second Comprehensive Special Prosecutor's Team, led by Kwon Chang-young, has launched a compulsory investigation into officials from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in connection with suspicions of involvement in the imposition of martial law and a possible second attempt.

On the 25th, the signboard of the Special Prosecutor's Office for the Investigation of the Truth on Insurrection, Foreign Exchange Crimes, and State Affairs Manipulation by Yoon Seok-yeol and Kim Gun-hee was hung in front of the Gwacheon Special Prosecutor's Office. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

According to the legal community on April 24, the special prosecutor's team dispatched prosecutors and investigators to the homes of four individuals, including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Myung-soo, to execute search and seizure warrants. The warrants reportedly list these individuals as suspects charged with involvement in major insurrection-related duties.

Former Chairman Kim is also facing charges of "subordinate crime by omission," which applies when a superior, despite being aware that subordinates are jointly committing a crime, fails to take all necessary measures to prevent it.

The special prosecutor's team plans to analyze materials that were previously submitted voluntarily by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as those secured through the day's searches, to determine whether the Joint Chiefs of Staff were involved in troop deployments and other activities before and after the proclamation of martial law on December 3, 2024. The team will also investigate whether, after the National Assembly passed a resolution demanding the lifting of martial law in the early morning of the following day, preparations for a "second martial law" were made under the instructions of former President Yoon Suk-yeol.

In connection with this, the special prosecutor's team has booked six individuals—former Chairman Kim, former Deputy Chief Jeong Jin-pal, former Head of Military Support Headquarters Kang Dong-gil, former Head of Operations Headquarters Lee Seung-oh, former Head of Operations Division Ahn Chan-myung, and former Deputy Chief of Combat Readiness Inspection Lee Jae-sik—on charges of participating in insurrection. The charges relate to their alleged failure to intervene, even as they watched the military being deployed to the National Assembly and elsewhere from the Joint Chiefs of Staff command and control room after the proclamation of martial law, and to their joint formation of the Martial Law Command.

It has been reported that, even after the National Assembly resolution was passed, former President Yoon Suk-yeol, along with former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun and former Army Chief of Staff Park An-soo (who was then Martial Law Commander), gathered in the decision support room of the Joint Chiefs of Staff combat command center to deliberate countermeasures.

The previous special prosecutor's team, led by Cho Eun-seok, which investigated the insurrection case, questioned former Chairman Kim and other Joint Chiefs of Staff officials but failed to find evidence of their involvement in martial law and consequently decided not to prosecute.

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