SEOUL, South Korea — The wife of South Korea’s jailed ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol and his former prime minister were indicted Friday as part of investigations into his administration and his attempt to overcome opposition by declaring martial law.
Yoon set off South Korea’s most serious political crisis in decades when he attempted to force his agenda through an opposition-dominated legislature by declaring martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. It lasted only hours but triggered months of turmoil that paralyzed politics, disrupted foreign policy and rattled the economy.
Yoon was impeached, then removed from office in April and rearrested last month after his conservative party lost the presidency in an early election. The new government has appointed three special prosecutors to investigate both the period of martial law and suspicions of corruption that dogged Yoon through his term in office.
A team led by Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki said it charged Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, with violating financial market and political funding laws and receiving bribes, about two weeks after a court ordered her arrest.
A separate team led by Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-suk said former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was charged with abetting Yoon’s imposition of martial law, which investigators say amounted to a rebellion, as well as falsifying and destroying official documents, and lying under oath.
Dozens of people have been arrested or investigated over Yoon’s martial law debacle, corruption allegations involving his wife, and other controversies from his three years in office, including an alleged cover-up of a marine’s drowning death during a 2023 flood rescue operation.
Key suspects include former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who has been accused of planning martial law with Yoon and sending troops to the National Assembly in an unsuccessful attempt to block lawmakers from voting to lift it. More than 60 people were separately indicted for rioting at a Seoul court which issued the warrant for Yoon’s first arrest in January.
Assistant special counsel Park Ji-young told a televised briefing that Han was the highest official who could have blocked Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law. Park said Han still played an “active” role in Yoon’s martial law declaration by trying to get Yoon’s decree passed through a Cabinet Council meeting as a way to give “procedural legitimacy” to it.
Han has maintained he conveyed to Yoon that he opposed his martial law plan.
Cho’s team earlier requested the Seoul Central District Court to issue a warrant to arrest Han. But the court on Wednesday dismissed that request, saying it determined that there were little chances that Han would flee or destroy evidence.
While Yoon’s self-inflicted downfall extended a lengthy streak of South Korean presidencies ending badly, he and Kim are the first former presidential couple to be jailed simultaneously over criminal allegations.
Yoon’s surprising but poorly-planned martial law imposition came amid a seemingly routine standoff with the liberals, and some political opponents have questioned whether Yoon’s actions were at least partly motivated by the allegations against his wife.
Kim and Yoon are suspected of exerting undue influence on the conservative People Power Party to nominate a favored candidate in a 2022 legislative by-election, allegedly at the request of election broker Myung Tae-kyun. Myung is accused of conducting free opinion surveys for Yoon that used manipulated data, possibly helping him win the party’s presidential primaries before his election as president.
Kim apologized for causing public concern earlier this month but also hinted she would deny the allegations against her, portraying herself as “someone insignificant.”
In a statement released through her lawyers on Friday, Kim didn’t make specific comments about her charges, but said the media was reporting suspicions as though they were “confirmed fact” and that she plans to “quietly attend the trials.”
Han, who was appointed prime minister, the country’s No. 2 post, by Yoon, was South Korea’s acting leader after Yoon was impeached in mid-December.
After Yoon was formally dismissed as president in a Constitutional Court decision, Han was supposed to continue to head the caretaker government until the June presidential election, but resigned to seek his party’s presidential nomination. He failed to win the nomination.
