Koreans block a military vehicle from entering the grounds of the National Assembly in the early hours of Dec. 4 after President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law. (Baek So-ah/Hankyoreh)
“[Commander Lee] told me to scale the wall and drag lawmakers outside. My subordinates heard me cursing, saying, ‘The lawmakers are the owners of the National Assembly building. What the [explicative] are you talking about?’ I suspected something was off at this point.”
Kim Hyeong-gi, the commander of the 1st Special Forces Battalion, was one of the first witnesses to take the stand in the trial of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who has been charged with insurrection. There, he recounted what he had heard from Lee Sang-hyeon, the commander of the 1st Special Forces Brigade, that night.
Yoon claimed during Monday’s hearing that he did not give orders to have the National Assembly barricaded and that military commanders acted excessively out of a misunderstanding of his commands, passing off responsibility onto his subordinates. Kim clearly testified, however, that he received orders to have lawmakers dragged out of the National Assembly.
Kim, who appeared as a witness for the prosecution, said, “[Lee] repeatedly said that lawmakers were attempting to pass a resolution, and gave instructions to drag them out, even if it meant breaking down doors and breaking windows.”
Kim said that Lee also said, “The president said to drag them out, even if it means breaking down doors.”
The president’s orders came down the line, but Kim didn’t follow them. “I couldn’t determine if the orders were just, so I did not relay them [to my subordinates].”
He also said there was a risk of clashes with civilians during the process of scaling the wall onto National Assembly grounds.
“As we scaled the wall [of the National Assembly], we were attacked and hit repeatedly [by civilians]. I thought, ‘It’s our duty to protect civilians. Why are they hitting us?’”
“As soon as we started getting hit for no reason, I saw the enraged looks in the eyes of my unit, all red-blooded young bucks.”
“So I said, ‘Hey, don’t do that. Just stand down. Turn around.’”
“We could have broken through the line even with just my unit,” Kim added. “But we would have had to use force, but we didn’t know who the civilians were [or why they were hitting us], so we didn’t do that.”
“I only gave one order to my troops. ‘Stand down. Don’t react. Don’t hit back.’ They listened.”
Kim also testified that he received orders to cut off electricity to the building.
“But I was worried about my unit, and we couldn’t implement those orders. I don’t know who gave that order, but they seem to have seen too many movies.”
When Kim’s testimony was finished, the presiding judge said, “Thank you for describing things as if they were a scene out of a movie.”
By Jang Hyeon-eun, staff reporter
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
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