This Oct. 1 photo shows former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, third from left, and President Yoon Suk Yeol. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-seok
The legal defense team representing former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said Friday that President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law did not amount to insurrection as it was within the president’s constitutional rights.
Kim was arrested this week on charges of playing a key role in an insurrection. The defense minister is suspected of recommending Yoon impose martial law on Dec. 3 and ordering troops to the National Assembly to stop lawmakers from voting down the decree.
“The declaration of martial law is a unique governance right given to the president by the Constitution,” Kim’s legal team said in a statement.
“Claiming the president’s declaration of martial law in itself is ‘insurrection,’ and attempting to investigate and try the case is very much an ‘insurrection’ that subverts the Constitution,” it said.
The legal team said Kim plans to join the president in “fighting and defending the Constitution” after Yoon, in a public address the previous day, defended his declaration of martial law as an act of governance and vowed to squarely face either impeachment or investigation.
The team also argued that subjecting an act of governance to a judicial review would only politicize the justice system, violating not only the principle of the separation of powers but also the free and democratic basic order. (Yonhap)
