SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee and former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo were indicted Friday as part of investigations into the administration of ousted President Yoon Suk-Yeol and his attempt to overcome opposition by declaring martial law.
A team led by Special Prosecutor Min Joong-ki said it charged Kim with violating financial market and political funding laws and receiving bribes, about two weeks after a court ordered her arrest.
A separate team led by Special
Prosecutor Cho Eun-suk said Han was charged with abetting Yoon’s imposition of martial law, which investigators say amounted to a rebellion, as well as falsifying and destroying official documents, and lying under oath.
Yoon was removed from office in April and rearrested last month over his December martial law decree, and three special prosecutor investigations into Yoon and his allies have been launched by the government of liberal President Lee Jae Myung.
Yoon’s defense minister, military commanders and police officers have been also arrested for their involvement in martial law.
Assistant special counsel Park Ji-young told a televised briefing that Han was the highest official who could have blocked Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law. Park said Han still played an “active” role in Yoon’s martial law declaration by trying to get Yoon’s decree passed through a Cabinet Council meeting as a way to give “procedural legitimacy” to it.
Han has maintained he conveyed to Yoon that he opposed his martial law plan.
Kim and Yoon are suspected of exerting undue influence on the conservative People Power Party to nominate a favored candidate in a 2022 legislative by-election, allegedly at the request of election broker Myung Tae-kyun. Myung is accused of conducting free opinion surveys for Yoon that used manipulated data, possibly helping him win the party’s presidential primaries before his election as president.
Kim apologized for causing public concern earlier this month but also hinted she would deny the allegations against her, portraying herself as “someone insignificant.”
In a statement released through her lawyers on Friday, Kim didn’t make specific comments about her charges, but said the media was reporting suspicions as though they were “confirmed fact" and that she plans to “quietly attend the trials.”
Han, who was appointed prime minister, the country’s No. 2 post, by Yoon, was South Korea's acting leader after Yoon was impeached in mid-December.
After Yoon was formally dismissed as president in a Constitutional Court decision, Han was supposed to continue to head the caretaker government until the June presidential election, but resigned to seek his party's presidential nomination. He failed to win the nomination.
