South Korean military officer says he believed Yoon's martial law 'legitimate'

By Ju-min Park

SEOUL (Reuters) - A top South Korean military commander said on Tuesday he trusted President Yoon Suk Yeol to be making a legitimate decision when he declared martial law, but declined to say if the impeached leader gave orders to "drag" lawmakers out of parliament.

Army Lieutenant General Lee Jin-woo testified at a Constitutional Court trial reviewing parliament's impeachment of Yoon over his short-lived martial law decree of Dec. 3.

Yoon's declaration of martial law plunged the country into a constitutional crisis that also saw the prime minister being impeached.

"I still believe it was legitimate and when told to go to parliament, I considered it to be an order," Lee told the court.

"There was no chance to even think about whether it was illegal or unconstitutional, when the commander-in-chief, who represents the people, and whom I knew to be a legal expert as a former top prosecutor, spoke to the country and to the world." 

The Constitutional Court is reviewing parliament's impeachment of Yoon on Dec. 14 and will decide whether to remove him from office permanently or reinstate him. If he is removed, a new presidential election must be held within 60 days. 

Prosecutors have separately indicted Yoon on charges of leading an insurrection. He was arrested last month and is being held at a detention centre.

Lee, who was the commander of the Army Capital Defence Command, is among a number of senior military and police officers who have also been accused of insurrection and abuse of authority.

Questioning Lee and other witnesses in court was focused on allegations that Yoon had given an order to arrest politicians.

Yeo In-hyung, who headed the defence counterintelligence command, said he had opposed martial law but could not help but comply with the commander-in-chief's decision.

He refused to answer questions about whether he had a list of politicians to arrest.

YOON PLAYS DOWN DECLARATION

Yoon attended the court hearing on Tuesday and said there was no point in debating whether he gave orders to remove lawmakers gathering to vote to lift the martial law when "nothing actually happened".

Lee and Yeo declined to answer many of the questions, including over whether Yoon had ordered troops to use firearms if necessary and to break into parliament to remove the lawmakers, saying they were defendants in criminal trials.

However, Hong Jang-won, another witness who is a former deputy chief of the National Intelligence Service, said Yoon had ordered him to "catch them all and clean up everything", without specifying who to catch.

Since the president had asked him to help Yeo's command, Hong said he spoke to Yeo who gave him a list of politicians to arrest.

"I still don't understand why (they) tried to arrest and investigate these people," he said.

Looking at Yoon, Hong told the court Yoon should have made a sincere apology to the people.

Immediately after Hong's testimony, Yoon flatly denied his allegations.

A copy of the indictment against Yoon seen by Reuters said Yoon allegedly asked the safety minister to cut off power and water to several media outlets considered to be critical of the conservative leader.

(This story has been corrected to fix the deadline for new election in paragraph 6)

(Reporting by Ju-min Park; additional reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Jack Kim, Clarence Fernandez and Alex Richardson)