‘Show police your guns, they’ll get scared’: contentious comments allegedly by ex-president
Weeks after his failed political gamble of declaring martial law on Dec. 3, then-President Yoon Suk Yeol faced mounting backlash in the form of a parliamentary impeachment and criminal investigations.
Despite being suspended from office, he remained surrounded by a loyal presidential security team.
A report by a special counsel-led investigation, portions of which were disclosed Monday, suggests that during this period, Yoon sought to obstruct the investigations against him, and that he issued unlawful orders to do so.
One of Yoon's alleged actions and remarks, compiled in the 66-page report by the special counsel team led by Cho Eun-suk, was made during a Jan. 11 luncheon with officials of the Presidential Security Service at the presidential residence. This was supposed to occurred four days before he was ultimately taken into custody under a court-issued detention warrant.
"The media says (police) special team and strike team will be entering (the presidential residence) for the second arrest (attept), but they don't have the skills to even shoot a gun (...) Police will get scared if you (Presidential Security Service agents) have guns. Show them that you have guns," Yoon supposedly told officials of his security team.
This differs slightly from claims made by the ruling party at the time, which said that security service officers had told them Yoon had emphasized they could "use" weapons.
Yoon, officially removed from the presidency on April 4, is currently under criminal trial for insurrection and power abuse concerning his martial law imposition, and his orders related to and following the much-disputed action.
The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials and police initially attempted to execute his arrest warrant on Jan. 3, but it was thwarted when the PSS set up barricades and blocked the officials from entering the premises.
Yoon's alleged order has been slapped with charges including special obstruction of public duty — via collective force or dangerous weapon — obstruction of rights through abuse of authority, and inciting a crime of harboring criminal.
He is also believed to have sent a text message on Jan. 7 to then-PSS deputy chief Kim Seong-hoon that said, "The PSS only thinks about the safety of former presidents and the incumbent president, the commander in chief of the military."
Special counsel believes that during the government investigation related to martial law, Yoon called Kim on Dec. 7 and instructed him to "take measures" so the investigators would not be able to access the secure phones given to the three military commanders thought to have played a crucial role in the martial law.
"Should we leave the devices by those three under investigation? What good is a secure phone if anyone could see it?" Yoon was quoted as saying in the report. The secure phones were fitted with functions to prevent recording or wiretapping, but the records of calls remain.
The counsel suspects Yoon gave orders to erase the call records on the secure phone, although whther he did or not, they were not erased.
Yoon's also had his public relations team defend the short-lived martial law to foreign press currently in Korea on Jan. 4, to which the special counsel team has applied the charge of the obstruction of one's right through abuse of authority.
Earlier investigation showed that Yoon had convened an unscheduled Cabinet meeting a little over two hours before declaring the martial law, where he unilaterally notified them of his intention. He is believed to have then had his aides make a fabricated minutes of the meeting, which were allegedly signed after the martial law was lifted by then-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and then-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.
If confirmed, this would be a violation of the Cabinet members right to deliberate on a presidential decision to declare martial law.
Han, Kim and Kang Eui-gu — a high-ranking official of the presidential office at the time who — made the document are accused to be accomplices in this illegal action. The document was later destroyed at Han's request and with Yoon's permission.
Representatives of Yoon have claimed that the problematic minutes was created by mistake "by a person with no authority," and that it is not a legal document.
He is maintaining that he did not give orders to the PSS to resist the arrest. According to Yoon, the arrest warrant itself was illegally issued by the court, and therefore and thwarting the arrest does not constitute the obstruction of public duty.
Yoon became the first president in Korean history to be arrested while in office on Jan. 15, but was released on March 8 when the court accepted Yoon's request to undergo the ongoing trial without physical detention.
But the special counsel Sunday requested an arrest warrant on the basis of new evidence and charges.
Yoon's lawyers on Sunday immediately released a statement claiming that it would be illegal to place him under arrest, saying that no objective evidence had been presented and the testimonies of those related were insufficient to establish a case.
Concerning the interfering with the investigation on the secure phones given to military commanders, Yoon has claimed that he gave no orders to delete the call records, and the records themselves have not actually been erased.
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