SEOUL (The Korea Herald/ANN): Kwak Jong-geun, the Special Warfare Commander who led special forces into South Korea’s National Assembly on the evening of Dec 3, said on Friday (Dec 6) that there would be no additional martial law and that he will refuse any such orders in the future.
Speaking at a YouTube live show hosted by Democratic Party lawmakers Park Sun-won and Kim Byung-joo, members of the National Assembly’s National Defence Committee, Mr Kwak said he received orders from Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun to drag lawmakers out of the Assembly, 20 minutes before President Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law on the night of Dec 3.
“About 20 minutes before the media reported the emergency martial law declaration, I received instructions from Minister Kim Yong-hyun and only understood that there might be a situation. I first became aware of the emergency martial law situation through the media reports,” he said.
He said he didn’t follow the order, knowing that it was clearly illegal.
“I judged that forcibly removing lawmakers from the National Assembly was clearly illegal, and while I knew it could be considered insubordination, I did not carry out the mission.”
When asked about the directives he issued during the deployment of the unit, he said, “There were unjust circumstances during the deployment, so I first instructed that no live ammunition be given to individual personnel under any circumstances.”
He also said he was contacted by Yoon on his way to the National Assembly, asking about the location of the 707 Special Mission unit.
He said he was told to control the National Assembly, guard the National Election Commission, and monitor the News Factory, an independent broadcast.
He said it would have been right to refuse the minister’s orders at the time.
“If I were to face such orders again, I would reject them outright.”
“I apologise to the public. I feel deeply sorry for the special forces troops who were deployed on the operation.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
