Sixth hearing of Pres. Yoon’s impeachment trial held on Thursday

“President Yoon said to me, ‘It seems that the quorum for a vote in the National Assembly hasn’t been met yet. Quickly break down the door, go inside, and drag them out.’” Former Army Special Warfare Commander Kwak Jong-keun testified as a witness in South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial, stating that during the December 3 martial law declaration. “I understood the target of the order to be ‘lawmakers,’” Kwak added. “I never used the word ‘lawmakers’ at the time,” President Yoon countered, adding that he didn’t use a similar-sounding Korean word, which means ‘personnel,’ either.

On Thursday, the sixth hearing of President Yoon’s impeachment trial was held at the Constitutional Court’s main courtroom in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Witness testimony was conducted for Kwak, who was requested by the National Assembly, and for Kim Hyeon-tae, commander of the Special Warfare Command’s 707th Special Mission Battalion, and Park Chun-seop, the Senior Secretary to the President for Economic Policy, who were requested by the president’s legal team. President Yoon briefly appeared in court during Kim’s testimony but left after Kwak’s testimony concluded.

“If I meant lawmakers, I would have just said ‘lawmakers.’ I’ve never used the word ‘personnel,’” President Yoon continued to deny the allegations. “If I had given an order to drag out lawmakers, wouldn’t I have at least discussed it first? What kind of bureaucratic hierarchy allows such an abrupt phone call ordering officials to block the quorum and forcibly remove lawmakers?” he claimed.


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