Military personnel from the 707th Special Mission Group at the National Assembly after martial law was declared, Dec. 3, 2024 | Image: Democratic Party lawmaker Park Sun-won’s office<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n
TROOP DEPLOYMENT CONTRADICTIONS<\/b><\/p>\n
The hearing also spotlighted conflicting testimonies about troop deployment to the National Assembly. Kim testified that he had initially suggested mobilizing between 10,000 and 30,000 troops, potentially scaling to 60,000, as part of martial law preparations. However, Kim testified that Yoon suggested only deploying 250 troops for \u201cwarning purposes\u201d when questioned by Yoon\u2019s legal defense team.<\/span><\/p>\n
Yoon suggested that only 20 special forces personnel had entered the assembly, asking Kim if he remembered this fact. But Kim contradicted this, testifying that 280 personnel were stationed throughout the building in response to Yoon\u2019s question. The absence of documentation to verify the numbers raised further doubts about the credibility of both accounts.<\/span><\/p>\n
Kim shifted his testimony further under questioning by Yoon\u2019s lawyers, as he claimed his order to \u201cremove agents\u201d (\uc694\uc6d0) from the National Assembly was misheard as an order to \u201cremove lawmakers\u201d (\uc758\uc6d0), suggesting that his order was misunderstood under the din of confusion as the two words could sound similar to each other.<\/span><\/p>\n
Progressive and conservative media outlets panned that explanation as implausible.<\/span><\/p>\n
Justice Cheong scrutinized the scale and intent of the deployment, asking: \u201cWhy did military forces need to enter the National Assembly building when only lawmakers and staff were present? And why were windows broken to gain entry?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Cheong further questioned the defendants about the reported arrest list of prominent politicians, including main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, then-ruling People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon and National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik.<\/span><\/p>\n
Kim\u2019s claim that troops were deployed to \u201cmonitor opposition figures\u201d prompted additional questions about whether the actions were aimed at arrests rather than maintaining public order.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
While Kim denied that there was any initial attempt to arrest political figures, the former defense minister admitted that the list was prepared under the premise that if those figures had violated the martial law decree, he would have eventually ordered the military to arrest them.<\/span><\/p>\n