Mammoth probes to look into Yoon's alleged treason, insurrection

Special teams size of a district attorney's office to be formed to investigate ex-president

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol (right) and his wife Kim Keon Hee leave a polling station on Election Day on Tuesday. Yonhap

Multiple probe teams together comprising some 120 prosecutors are set to look into allegations surrounding former President Yoon Suk Yeol, including one that he committed treason by trying to impose martial law on Dec. 3, 2024.

The Democratic Party of Korea on Thursday passed a series of bills seeking to open three separate special counsel investigations.

One will investigate whether Yoon's short-lived martial law declaration would constitute insurrection, for which a criminal trial is already underway, as well as treason.

The Democratic Party claims that Yoon plotted to provoke a military action from North Korea to justify declaring martial law with his hawkish policies such as resumption of anti-Pyongyang broadcasts near inter-Korean borders in June 2024. The Democratic Party is also pushing an as-yet unsubstatiated claim that Yoon sent unmanned aerial vehicles into Pyongyang in October 2024.

Yoon allegedly attempting to instigate an armed conflict with North Korea in the run-up to his martial law decree was "treason," the Democratic Party claimed, on top of it being a "rebellion against the Constitution, which is to say, insurrection."

Another special counsel investigation would revisit the death of a Marine in July 2023.

Cpl. Chae Su-geun, 20, died when he was swept away in moving water during a search and rescue operation to locate flood victims in a rain-swollen river in Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province.

The Democratic Party claims that the Yoon presidential office tried to hinder a preliminary investigation into if there had been negligence and other wrongdoing at the top in Chae's death.

Yoon's wife Kim Keon Hee is also set to face a special counsel investigation into allegations that she interfered in the People Power Party's nomination of candidates for a National Assembly seat.

The Democratic Party voted without the People Power Party to pass the special counsel bills Thursday. The Democratic Party has the majority in the Assembly, holding 167 out of 300 seats.