South Korea’s impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol spoke about imposing martial law in private gatherings over drinks with lawmakers, the former leader of his ruling party said in a new book.
Han Dong Hoo quit as leader of the conservative People Power Party after Mr Yoon shocked the country by imposing martial law on 3 December.
South Korea’s first martial law declaration in nearly 40 years ended after just six hours when the National Assembly voted to withdraw it, despite attempts by armed soldiers to prevent lawmakers from assembling.
Mr Han released his memoir, titled The People First, on Wednesday just as the Constitutional Court concluded hearings on the validity of Mr Yoon’s impeachment by the National Assembly and the suspended president gave a long statement in his defence.
Mr Han claimed in his book that the president used to “rant” about suspending civilian rule, but he was not taken seriously. “A significant number of party lawmakers who had shared drinks with the president said he would often rant about martial law in private gatherings,” he wrote. “They bitterly admitted that they hadn’t realised he might have actually meant it.”
Ahead of its release, the book topped pre-orders and became a bestseller in South Korea for offering an insider account of the upheaval caused by the martial law decree.
Mr Han noted an exchange with a senior presidential official moments before the decree was issued. The “worst” was about to happen, he said the official warned him.
He and many of his party colleagues thought they would be arrested or even killed that night but went ahead to vote down the martial law in the National Assembly.
“I might get arrested, but I have to endure it. I need to get to the National Assembly as soon as possible, there’s no time to lose,” Mr Han recalled telling a party spokesperson on the night of 3 December.
Mr Han also wrote about an American official raising concerns about the state of affairs in the country.
“If the martial law situation had not been resolved quickly, it seemed likely that important issues would have arisen in foreign affairs and security, including relations with the United States,” he wrote.
Mr Yoon has maintained that he had no intention of disrupting the parliament’s work and the deployment of soldiers and police was meant to ensure order.
However, some commanders of the military units sent to the National Assembly have testified that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out lawmakers to prevent them from overturning his decree.
Mr Yoon has said the allegations that he ordered the arrest or removal of politicians were “absurd”.
