Ex-defense minister, officials investigated for abuse of power over martial law remarks

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials building at the Government Complex Gwacheon, south of Seoul (Yonhap)

Former Defense Minister Song Young-moo and other high-ranking officials underwent a search and seizure Friday over allegations that Song had committed an abuse of power. He is alleged to have coerced subordinates to lie about his remark on the legitimacy of a hypothetical military crackdown on peaceful protesters demonstrating against former President Park Geun-hye.

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials raided the homes and offices of former Minister Song, former reserve army chief Jung Hae-il and then Defense Ministry spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo, as well as the Ministry of National Defense itself Friday. The three were all former high-ranking officials under the previous Moon Jae-in administration.

The CIO is an independent body with the power to investigate high-ranking officials. It plans to investigate further after analyzing the data obtained during the search and seizure.

Song's remark centered on a document written during the Park administration over the legitimacy of her declaring martial law to end the candlelight demonstrations just before her impeachment in 2017.

In July 2018, media reports revealed that then Defense Minister Song had remarked in a closed-door meeting of the ministry that there would have been "no legal problem" if martial law had been declared back in February 2017 to quell the candlelight vigils calling for Park's impeachment at that time. Following the reports, Song allegedly forced his subordinates who had attended the meeting to sign an oath containing a false statement that he had not made the remark.

The document was disclosed by Rep. Lee Chul-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea and the Center for Military Human Rights Korea in 2018. The document included a review of how the Defense Security Command could declare martial law to suppress the protesters.

Upon the document's disclosure in 2018, the Moon administration, which was elected following Park's impeachment, treated it as a grave matter, defining it as a serious document with criminal intent, containing plans to suppress unarmed citizens via the armed forces.

The reports saying that then Minister Song had said there was no problem with the document subsequently raised controversy over whether the Moon administration had exaggerated the document's seriousness.

Song is concurrently being investigated for his alleged abuse of power related to the document separately by the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office.

By Lee Jung-youn(jy@heraldcorp.com)