On Feb 25, Yoon Suk-yeol mentioned “spy” 25 times in his closing statement at the impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court, and did not relent in his insistence on the “legitimacy” of the Dec 3 emergency martial law declaration.
He even raised his voice to push for constitutional reform and political reform if he returns to office.
Throughout his testimony, he repeatedly claimed that the “Republic of Korea (ROK)” was in a “catastrophic crisis” and a “national emergency,” saying, “The external sovereignty-violating forces, including the “North Korea,” and the internal anti-state forces in our society are working together to seriously threaten national security and continuity.”
The impeachment trial, which began with evidence examination at 14:00, lasted nearly five hours with comprehensive arguments by the National Assembly impeachment prosecution team and Yoon’s defense team.
The closing arguments hardly deviated from what Yoon had been saying in the video message he released before his arrest on Jan 15, the “Letter to the People” he published shortly after his arrest, and the subsequent impeachment trial arguments. Instead of apologizing, he blamed his subordinates for his crimes, and kept his method of encouraging division by sending a message to his staunch supporters to unite.
In his one-hour and seven-minute closing statement, Yoon Suk-yeol said, “Dec 3 emergency martial law is completely different from the martial laws of the past. It was an appeal to people with a form of martial law”, “There are also negative memories of the past that are evoked by the word martial law. “The major opposition parties and insurrectionary maneuvering forces are exploiting this trauma to incite the people,” and “This martial law was not for Yoon Suk-yeol alone. It was a call for people to face the situation and take action to overcome it”, he thoughtlessly said.
He kept his claim that he had been placed in the position of a victim who had to face a huge opposition party alone. Yoon repeated his untrue claims, saying that “spies are pushing our society into conflict and chaos with fake news, manipulation of public opinion, and propaganda,” and that “it has been revealed that they intervened in the election under the direction of the “North Korea.””
In a statement totaling 14,811 characters, there was not a single expression of apologizing to the people. Instead, he appealed to the far-right reactionary groups that support him, especially the youth. Regarding the riots at the Seoul Western District Court last month, he wrote, “Some young people are in a difficult situation because of what happened during the detention process for me. I feel very sorry for them before whether it is right or wrong,” and supported the violence and criminal behavior of the rioters.
He also reiterated his claim of the “election fraud theory”. “In 2023, the Central Election Commission was hacked by the “North Korea,” but it did not respond to the inspection, and because serious security problems were revealed, a small army was sent to screen the computer system,” he said, citing “fake ballots” as an example, adding that he could not understand “which part is insurrection and which part is a crime” about usage of the military on the day of martial law.
He downplayed the severity of the situation during martial law. “If I really wanted to impose martial law, why would I have used only 280 troops who were not even in live ordnance,” he said. “Only 106 troops entered the National Assembly before the resolution to lift martial law, and only 15 troops entered the main building,”. And regarding that the troops broke windows to get in, he thoughtlessly added “Their duty station was in the main building, but the entrance was blocked by citizens, so they looked for a window where the light was turned off to avoid a clash.
As for the suspicion of ordering to arrest politicians, lawyers, and others, he rejected it as “absurd” and “something that happens only in movies and novels.”
He denied that witnesses at the impeachment trial had said they had followed his orders, saying that “making such claims about an impossible event that never happened and cannot happen is like trying to pick up moonlight from a lake.”
