Seoul: Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok have been barred from leaving the country as they are under investigation in connection with the alleged insurrection case linked to former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed attempt to impose martial law, police announced on Tuesday. The exit ban was reportedly put in place for Han and Choi around the middle of this month.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the police's special investigation unit, which is managing the high-profile case, summoned Han, Choi, and former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min on Monday. They were questioned for approximately 10 hours regarding their alleged roles in Yoon's declaration of martial law on December 3 of last year. An existing exit ban on Lee, first imposed in December, has also been extended.
The former ministers were interrogated about whether they provided false statements concerning the receipt of martial law-related documents during a Cabinet meeting convened by Yoon on the night of December 3. The police have completed an analysis of surveillance footage from the presidential office's Cabinet meeting room and hallway.
During the questioning, Han reiterated his claim that he was not aware of the martial law plan in advance and had opposed Yoon's decision up until the declaration was made. "It is his position that he fully cooperated with the investigation and has shared everything he remembers with the police, the National Assembly and the prosecution," an aide to Han informed Yonhap News Agency.
Han previously refuted the charges, stating in February that he only discovered he had the martial law declaration document in his suit's back pocket after the decree was annulled by an Assembly vote. Choi and Lee also provided testimonies that aligned with their prior statements, according to news reports.
Choi, suspected of receiving a memo from Yoon directing a budget for an emergency legislative body during the December 3 Cabinet meeting, claimed that he was handed a "folded note" but was too overwhelmed at the time to read it. Police also questioned Lee over allegations that Yoon ordered him to cut off power and water supplies to major local media outlets, although Lee testified earlier that Yoon did not issue such orders.
Additionally, police have extended exit bans this month on top Presidential Security Service (PSS) officials, including former chief Park Chong-jun and deputy head Kim Seong-hoon. The investigation team has detected signs that user information for Yoon, Hong Jang-won, former first deputy director of the National Intelligence Service, and Kim Bong-sik, former chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, was remotely deleted from secure phone server records submitted by the PSS.
Police have yet to identify a suspect for the records' erasure but have not ruled out Yoon or PSS deputy chief Kim as potential culprits.