Seoul: Special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team announced Sunday the detention of the head of the Drone Operations Command, Maj. Gen. Kim Yong-dae, as part of an investigation into former President Yoon Suk Yeol's alleged attempt to declare martial law.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Maj. Gen. Kim was detained on Friday without a warrant, following a day of questioning by the special counsel team. He faces charges of benefiting the enemy, drafting fabricated documents, and power abuse. These charges are linked to allegations that he acted on Yoon's directive to send drones to North Korea last year, which was purportedly aimed at justifying a future martial law declaration by the former president.
In a notice to the press, the special counsel team stated, "At 2 p.m. today, we requested an arrest warrant for Commander Kim. We requested the arrest warrant based on crimes we have verified so far, as there was reason to place him in custody." The Seoul Central District Court is set to hold a hearing on Monday at 3 p.m. to decide on the issuance of the arrest warrant.
With Kim's detention, the special counsel team plans to delve further into the charges that Yoon incited foreign aggression by ordering the drone deployment. The team suspects that Yoon bypassed the defense ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to directly command the operation, aiming to provoke retaliation from the North as a pretext for imposing martial law.
Maj. Gen. Kim has denied the allegations, asserting that the drone operation was conducted legally under JCS instructions and had no connection to any martial law attempt.