Seoul: National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik will appear before Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-suk's team at 10 a.m. Thursday to be questioned as a witness about former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law declaration, the team announced Tuesday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the special counsel has asked for cooperation in questioning Woo as a victim and the head of the organization that lifted the unlawful martial law, and he has agreed to appear in person this Thursday. Woo is expected to be asked whether the conservative People Power Party (PPP) systematically obstructed the National Assembly's vote during the process of lifting the martial law.
Following Yoon's martial law imposition on the night of December 3 last year, the 300-member National Assembly passed a resolution in the early hours of December 4 demanding that Yoon lift the martial law. All 190 lawmakers present voted in favor. Under the Constitution, martial law must be lifted when a parliamentary majority demands it. Woo presided over the special parliamentary session on December 4 and managed the National Assembly for about 155 minutes until the resolution was passed.
The special counsel team suspects that the PPP leadership may have changed the meeting places of party lawmakers several times to obstruct them from participating in the Assembly vote at that time under an instruction from Yoon. The team also said it has asked PPP lawmaker Cho Kyung-tae to appear at its office next Monday to be questioned as a witness.