Yoon's ex-secretary gets 18 months for manufacturing martial law document

A Seoul court on Thursday sentenced a former presidential secretary to 18 months in prison for drafting a false document in connection with former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed 2024 martial law bid.

Seoul Central District Court handed down the punishment for Kang Eui-gu, finding him guilty on charges of creating a false official document by drafting a cover of Yoon's martial law proclamation on Dec. 6, 2024, three days after his declaration.

The court accepted special counsel Cho Eun-suk's argument that Kang created the document and collected signatures of Yoon, then Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and then Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun to give the martial law declaration an appearance of procedural legitimacy.

“After becoming aware of the error that martial law took place without a document containing the president's signature and countersignatures of Cabinet members, [the defendant] newly drafted a cover that did not exist for the already distributed proclamation to conceal [the error]," the court said.

The court, however, acquitted Kang on charges of exercising a false official document, noting he had merely stored the document in a desk before destroying it later.

The ruling came after Yoon and Han were also earlier found guilty on charges of drafting a false document after being indicted on the same charge in their separate trials.

Yonhap