South Korea: Ex-interior minister questioned overnight in martial law probe

Seoul, April 19 (IANS) Former South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min returned home on Saturday after an overnight police interrogation over his alleged involvement in former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's brief imposition of martial law late last year.

The former minister appeared before a special police investigation team at around 2 p.m. Friday as a suspect in the ongoing probe. He was released about 18 hours later at approximately 7:40 a.m. on Saturday.

He is suspected of directing the National Fire Agency to cut off power and water supplies to multiple media outlets critical of former President following Yoon's martial law declaration on December 3.

Lee reportedly denied the allegations against him. He is said to have spent more than three hours, beginning around 4 a.m., reviewing and making revisions to the official record of his statement.

Investigators are seeking to determine whether the utility disruptions were initially ordered by then President Yoon, and whether Lee carried out those instructions, Yonhap news agency reported.

The ongoing investigation includes testimony from fire department personnel as well as forensic analysis of materials seized during raids on Lee's home and offices in Seoul and Sejong in February, according to sources familiar with the probe.

Meanwhile, Yoon, who dramatically rose from a top prosecutor to the presidency in about three years, became the nation's second President to be formally removed from office, with his surprise martial law bid rattling the nation for months and deepening political polarisation.

With the ruling, Yoon, 64, follows in the footsteps of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who was ousted in 2017 when the Constitutional Court upheld her impeachment over a corruption scandal.

Before taking the nation's highest office, Yoon began his career as a prosecutor in 1994, rising through the ranks to lead an investigation team into Park's corruption scandal that ultimately led to her ouster and subsequent imprisonment.

In 2019, he was appointed as the nation's top prosecutor under then South Korean President Moon Jae-in but clashed with the administration as he oversaw investigations into family members of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk.

Amid mounting pressure from the Moon administration, Yoon stepped down from his post in 2021, only to enter politics shortly after and win the presidential election in 2022 as the candidate for the conservative People Power Party.

Yoon's term was riddled with conflict with an uncooperative National Assembly dominated by the main Opposition Democratic Party (DP). Yoon exercised his presidential veto power against 25 Bills passed by the National Assembly.

Tensions with the DP appeared to reach an extreme in early December as the main Opposition introduced motions to impeach the country's top auditor and a senior prosecutor, with Yoon declaring martial law on December 3, which ultimately led to his downfall.

--IANS

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