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Did South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol order drone missions into Pyongyang to justify martial law?

Secret recording could amount to ‘smoking gun’ that Yoon sought to manufacture crisis to legitimise extending his presidency, observers say

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A photo released by North Korea’s state media on October 19, 2024, shows what is claimed to be a recovered South Korean drone, at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Photo: KCNA via KNS/AFP
A secret recording suggesting South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk-yeol may have ordered drone missions over Pyongyang in a bid to trigger a North Korean military response is now at the centre of the investigation into his December martial law debacle.

Special prosecutors scrutinising Yoon for insurrection and foreign aggression incitement believe the audio files could amount to a “smoking gun” – offering evidence he sought to manufacture a crisis to legitimise extending his presidency, observers say.

“Yoon now faces allegations that, instead of fulfilling his duty to protect the people as commander-in-chief, he jeopardised their safety in an unlawful attempt to extend his rule,” Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies, told This Week in Asia.

The former leader declared martial law on December 3, citing unspecified threats from North Korea and “anti-state forces” threatening democracy, as well as a legislative deadlock caused by opposition control of the National Assembly.

“If the North had responded militarily, it could have sparked armed conflict along the border – and potentially escalated into an all-out war,” Yang said.

Former president Yoon Suk-yeol arrives for questioning over charges related to the December 3 martial law imposition at the special prosecutor’s office in Seoul on June 28. Photo: EPA
Former president Yoon Suk-yeol arrives for questioning over charges related to the December 3 martial law imposition at the special prosecutor’s office in Seoul on June 28. Photo: EPA

According to reports from both the conservative Dong-A Ilbo and the progressive Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper, special prosecutors investigating Yoon on insurrection charges have secured a recording of military officers quoting Drone Operations Commander Kim Yong-dae as saying that the aerial missions were ordered by “V” – believed to be shorthand for the former president.

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