Yoon says special forces soldiers sent to National Assembly on December 3 were not there to disable the legislature.South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has rejected allegations at his impeachment trial that he ordered members of the military to drag lawmakers out of the National Assembly during last month’s short-lived martial law.
Yoon, 64, told the Constitutional Court in Seoul on Tuesday that he had worked in public service with “a firm commitment to free democracy”.
He was then moved to a military hospital, the Yonhap news agency reported.
The impeached president has been incarcerated since last week under separate criminal charges of leading an insurrection through his attempt to enact martial law in early December, a move that shocked the nation and was overturned within hours by the National Assembly.
Yoon said at the hearing that special forces soldiers sent to the legislature on December 3 were not there to disable the National Assembly or prevent it from blocking his martial law because he knew such an action would have led to an indefensible crisis.
“In this country, parliament and news media are far more powerful than the president, in a far superior position,” he told the court. Advertisement
If the court rules against Yoon, he would lose the presidency, and an election would be called within 60 days.
His lawyers outlined arguments in defence of Yoon’s martial law declaration, saying it was meant to sound the alarm over abuses committed by the opposition Democratic Party.
They argued the opposition’s actions had paralysed the government and pushed …