SEOUL (AP) – South Korea’s previous defence minister Kim Yong Hyun was stopped from attempting suicide while in detention over last week’s martial law case, officials said, as police were trying to search President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office yesterday in their intensifying investigation.
The main liberal opposition Democratic Party also plans to submit a new motion to impeach Yoon for his December 3 declaration that imposed martial law in South Korea for the first time in more than four decades. Its first impeachment attempt against Yoon last Saturday failed, with ruling party lawmakers boycotting a floor vote.
Yoon’s ill-conceived power grab has paralysed South Korean politics, frozen its foreign policy and rattled financial markets.
Yesterday, rival North Korea’s state media for the first time reported about the South Korean turmoil, but the country hasn’t yet showed any suspicious activities.
Commissioner general of the Korea Correctional Service Shin Yong Hae told lawmakers yesterday that Kim tried to kill himself the previous night at a detention centre in Seoul.
He said that Kim’s suicide attempt failed after centre officials stopped him and that he’s in stable condition now. At the same parliamentary committee meeting, Justice Minister Park Sung Jae confirmed Kim’s failed suicide attempt.
Kim was arrested early yesterday after a Seoul court approved a warrant for him on allegations of playing a key role in a rebellion and committing abuse of power. Kim became the first person formally arrested over the martial law decree.
Kim, one of Yoon’s close associates, has been accused of recommending martial law to Yoon and sending troops to the National Assembly to block lawmakers from voting on it.
Lawmakers eventually managed to enter a Parliament chamber and they unanimously rejected Yoon’s decree, forcing the Cabinet to lift it before daybreak on December 4. Kim said in a statement on Tuesday that he “deeply apologises for causing significant anxiety” to the public. He said all responsibility for the martial law imposition rests with him and pleaded for leniency for soldiers deployed to enforce it.
Prosecutors have up to 20 days to determine whether to indict Kim.
Also yesterday, National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho Ji Ho and head of the metropolitan police agency of Seoul Kim Bong-sik were detained over the martial law, police said. They were accused of deploying police forces to the National Assembly.
