Seoul, Dec 7 – On Sunday a special counsel unit formally charged former People Power Party (PPP) floor leader, Representative Choo Kyung‑ho, with obstructing the lifting of a martial‑law decree that President Yoon Suk‑yeol had tried to impose last December.
The team led by Special Counsel Cho Eun‑suk said it had handed down an indictment on Choo without ordering his arrest. Prosecutors allege that Choo prevented party members from voting to repeal the martial‑law order issued on Dec 3 of the previous year.
A week earlier, a Seoul court rejected a request for an arrest warrant, saying the case still contained disputable facts and that there was insufficient justification for taking Choo into custody.
Choo, who once played a major role in Yoon’s campaign, is accused of repeatedly shifting the site of an emergency party meeting on the night of Dec 3 at Yoon’s request. Because of the last‑minute venue changes, just 18 of the PPP’s 108 MPs were present for the vote, which was approved unanimously the next morning by the 190 legislators in attendance.
He quickly condemned the indictment as “unwarranted,” arguing that the charges were baseless and that he never received any direction from Yoon about martial law. In a press release, Choo stated, “The special counsel proceeded ahead with its political indictment without further evidence, even after its request for an arrest warrant was dismissed for failing to substantiate the charges,” and accused the investigators of targeting him politically.
In late November the National Assembly passed a motion to arrest Choo. However, under the law, sitting lawmakers are protected from arrest while Parliament is in session and can only be detained with the Assembly’s consent.
The special counsel team also charged former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo‑ahn, again without a physical detention, on allegations of inciting an insurrection after Yoon’s brief imposition of martial law. Hwang, who served under former President Park Geun‑hye, posted on Facebook after the crackdown, calling for the removal of pro‑North Koreas elements and alleged election fraud, and demanded the arrest of Assembly Speaker Woo Won‑shik and then‑PPP leader Han Dong‑hoon. A court likewise denied an arrest warrant for Hwang last month, citing insufficient reasons to detain him.
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