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A secret drone flight from South Korea to central Pyongyang was part of a plot by the former president to sway North Korea’s leader, South Korean prosecutors say, releasing new details of a plot they say preceded the failed declaration of martial law.
Memos discovered on a senior defense official’s cellphone allegedly revealed plans by former President Yoon Seok-yeol and two other senior defense officials to infuriate Kim Jong-un enough to justify a shocking late-night arms control order issued last December.
Prosecutors released evidence on Monday that appears to support North Korea’s claims that South Korea sent secret drones to the country last October to distribute anti-regime leaflets. The flight prompted a rare and fiery statement from Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong.
North Korea vowed to cut off all road and rail connections with the south and blow up two roads in its territory, but stopped short of military action. A few weeks later, Yun declared martial law, citing the need to protect liberal South Korea from “communist forces in North Korea.”
The immediate order was lifted within hours after South Korean parliamentarians pushed past the military and rejected it. This is the first step in the sentencing of Yoon, which is still being fought in court.
Monday’s new indictment will add to the escalation of Mr. Yoon’s legal battles, including his ongoing trial on sedition charges, and provide another piece to a political puzzle that is still not fully resolved.
Yun denies ordering drones to be flown into Pyongyang to provoke North Korea or attempting to start a rebellion through martial law.
Yoo Jeong-hwa, one of Yoon’s lawyers, called the latest indictment a “unilateral prosecution” that “goes beyond unreasonableness and fails to adhere to even the basic principles of legal logic.”
But publicist and defense attorney Park Ji-young said she was “appalled” by what the prosecution revealed, and on Monday released a memo supporting the prosecution’s claims.
The allegations date back to October last year, when North Korean state media reported that South Korean drones had repeatedly violated Pyongyang’s airspace and distributed anti-regime leaflets.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published a photo showing a drone perched on a tree, which analysts said resembled a South Korean military unmanned aerial vehicle.
KCNA also showed images of a drone it said was spotted flying low over North Korea’s authoritarian supreme leader’s headquarters.
Kim Byung-joo, a retired four-star general in the South Korean Army and now a lawmaker with the Democratic Party of Korea, which opposes Mr. Yoon’s former party, told CNN in July that he received details of the drone flights directly from a whistleblower at the Korea Unmanned Aircraft Operations Command.
According to Kim, the flights took place at least three times last year, on October 3, October 8 and 9, and November 13.
A South Korean lawmaker told CNN, “It is believed that the aim was to provoke a military response from North Korea by flying drones into the heart of North Korea and distributing leaflets criticizing Kim Jong Un.”
“It was like a knife being held at (North Korea’s) neck,” he added.
North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong issued a statement on October 12 condemning the airspace violation and warning of “serious consequences.”
Kim Yong-hyun, South Korea’s defense minister at the time, initially denied sending drones to North Korea, but soon changed his stance, saying he could not confirm North Korea’s claims.
Following Mr. Yun’s disastrous attempt to impose martial law, members of the now-ruling Democratic Party called for an investigation into allegations that the former president conspired to create a national security crisis.
Once in power, lawmakers passed a bill appointing an independent prosecutor, who released a memo on Monday that said it revealed evidence of secret discussions about Mr. Yoon’s plan to provoke North Korea, which has a long history of bomb threats against South Korea and its allies.
According to prosecutors, a memo found on the cell phone of former National Defense Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyun included references to creating an “unstable situation.”
According to prosecutors, one memo, drafted on October 18 last year, said: “We must identify and exploit once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that have short-term effects. To do this, we must create instability or seize the opportunity that is created.”
“We will target places where (North Korea) has lost face to the point where they feel they have no choice but to respond,” another memo said. The locations listed included the capital, two nuclear facilities, Kim’s villa, as well as Samjiyon and Wonsan.
Samjiyon is considered a sacred place in North Korea because it is the birthplace of Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, and is a symbolic place linked to his grandfather’s anti-Japanese movement.
The Wonsan Karma tourist area is one of Kim Jong Un’s flagship development projects and has been hailed as a “huge success” by the North Korean leader.
Another memo from October 23, labeled “Goals and End Status,” includes phrases such as “at a minimum a national security crisis” and “at a maximum a Noah’s Flood,” possibly a reference to Noah’s Ark, where only those in a powerful boat survived the Biblical Flood.
A subsequent memo dated Nov. 5 said: “The enemy’s actions must come first. There must be a wartime situation or a situation beyond the control of police forces. Create an enemy situation…you must wait for a decisive opportunity.”
Park, the prosecutor’s office spokeswoman, said she could not provide further details due to laws regarding military secrecy.
However, it added that evidence in a notebook belonging to former Defense Intelligence Commander Roh Sang-won suggests that discussions and preparations for martial law are thought to begin by October 2023, following a major reshuffle of South Korean military generals.
President Park said, “The president and the defense minister, who have the highest command of national security, (allegedly) trying to create the conditions for the declaration of martial law by taking advantage of military tensions between the North and South are completely unacceptable.”
Rep. Kim Byung-joo, a retired general, said he was surprised the North Korean leader did not order a response after a South Korean drone was allegedly spotted over the capital.
“In retrospect, it was a godsend for South Korea that North Korea refrained from any military provocations and stopped making rhetorical threats,” he said. “If North Korea had chosen to respond with military action under those circumstances, it could have escalated into a localized conflict.”
Kim said North Korea’s sending more than 10,000 troops to Russia to fight in its war against Ukraine may have deterred him from taking further action.
“At that time, it would have been difficult for North Korea to maintain two fronts, because it would mean a huge difference in combat capabilities.”
Yoon, former defense officials Kim and Yeo are all charged with supporting the enemy and abusing power to harm the nation’s interests. The three are already on trial for sedition charges related to the imposition of martial law.
South Korea’s military has not yet commented on the investigation or charges, citing ongoing legal proceedings. CNN has reached out to lawyers for Kim and Yeo. Local media reported that Yeo said he deeply regretted not challenging Yun’s order.
Mr. Yoon, a conservative who has long taken a hard-line stance against North Korea, narrowly won the 2022 election, but his ruling party failed to win a majority in parliament and struggled to pass its legislative agenda. It has been a constant source of frustration for his administration, and that frustration exploded in spectacular fashion towards the end of last year.
On December 3, Mr. Yoon declared martial law in a late-night televised speech, stating that there were “anti-national forces” sympathetic to North Korea within the opposition party within the government.
Armed soldiers descended on parliament by helicopter and attempted to storm the chamber where lawmakers were assembled. Shocked and angry citizens, along with parliamentary staff, quickly barricaded entrances and struggled to prevent soldiers from reaching the chamber, with the chaos broadcast live on television.
Lawmakers voted to overturn martial law over the soldiers, but Yun’s actions sparked mass protests, legal challenges and ultimately led to his removal from office through impeachment.
Analysts say sending a drone flight into North Korea could be interpreted as an act of war, triggering a military response and potentially leading to war.
The Korean peninsula has been divided ever since the brutal war between North and South ended with an armistice in 1953. However, hostilities have never officially ended, and relations between the two countries have remained unstable ever since.
Leif Eric Easley, a professor at Seoul’s Ewha University, said if Mr. Yoon had ordered the drone flights, it would “demonstrate a dangerous interplay between domestic politics and security policy” in South Korea.
“While some national security activities are necessarily top secret and take place in legal gray areas, strong checks, balances and policy scrutiny must ensure that they serve the national interest rather than personal objectives,” Easley said.
Victor Cha, South Korea chairman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the potential international implications of the incident are significant, especially for the United States, South Korea’s treaty ally, which has tens of thousands of troops stationed at bases on the Korean peninsula.
He added that drone flights into North Korea violate the armistice agreement between the two countries.
“We know that North Koreans are constantly breaking the armistice agreement, but they are not politically held accountable domestically,” he said. “In a democratic country like South Korea, there is a possibility of being held politically responsible.”
