The second comprehensive special prosecution team, led by Kwon Chang-young and tasked with probing lingering allegations after three prior special prosecutor probes, has opened a compelled investigation into the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Authorities are examining the JCS’s suspected role in the Dec. 3 emergency martial law and an alleged plan to prepare a second declaration of martial law. According to legal sources on the 24th, the special prosecution team dispatched prosecutors and investigators today to execute search warrants at the residences of four people, including former Joint Chiefs Chairman Kim Myung-soo.
The search warrants identify the four as suspects accused of performing major duties related to insurrection. Investigators also charged former Chairman Kim with failing to prevent crimes by subordinates — an offense applied when a superior, aware that subordinates are jointly committing a crime, does not take necessary measures to stop them.
The team will analyze documents the Joint Chiefs voluntarily submitted on several occasions, together with material seized in today’s searches. Investigators aim to determine whether the JCS managed troop movements before and after the Dec. 3, 2024 martial law declaration. They are also probing whether, after the National Assembly passed a resolution the next morning demanding the lifting of martial law, the Joint Chiefs — allegedly at the direction of former President Yoon Suk-yeol — prepared for a second martial law.
During recent interviews with current and former Joint Chiefs officials, prosecutors obtained testimony indicating that, after the National Assembly adopted the resolution to lift martial law, there was a request for additional troop deployments to the Joint Chiefs. Based on those statements, the special prosecution team is investigating whether former President Yoon sought to prepare a second martial law — including by requesting extra troop deployments — even after the parliamentary resolution passed. Sources say Yoon met after the resolution’s adoption with former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and former Army Chief of Staff Park An-su (the martial law commander at the time) in the Joint Chiefs’ combat control room decision-support office to discuss response measures.
An earlier special prosecutor team investigating insurrection summoned Kim and other Joint Chiefs officials multiple times but did not find evidence linking them to the martial law and declined to indict. When the comprehensive special prosecution unit launched in February, it designated Kim and other former Joint Chiefs officers in its “No. 1 recognized incident,” formally naming them as suspects on charges that include performing major duties related to insurrection and launching a full-scale investigation.
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