Yeo testifies as witness in Yoon insurrection appeal

Says 'JTSB' stood for four commanders all opposed to martial law

First special prosecutor indicted four based on 'J = Noh' reading; second charged Kang without detention

Former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung arrives at a plenary session of the National Assembly's intelligence committee in Yeouido, Seoul, in 2024. [National Assembly press photographers pool]
Former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung arrives at a plenary session of the National Assembly's intelligence committee in Yeouido, Seoul, in 2024. [National Assembly press photographers pool]

Former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung testified in court Monday that the letter "J" in a memo he wrote on his mobile phone about a month before the Dec. 3 emergency martial law declaration referred to former Ground Operations Command chief Kang Ho-pil — not former Defense Intelligence Command chief Noh Sang-won, as the special prosecutor's team had argued.

Yeo appeared as a witness at the Seoul High Court before the 12th Criminal Division (Judges Lee Seung-cheol, Jo Jin-gu and Kim Min-a) for the second-instance trial of former President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of leading an insurrection, according to Yonhap.

Responding to questions from Yoon's defense team about the memo's meaning, Yeo said he was "utterly baffled" to find the first-instance ruling in the general treason case had identified "J" as Noh. "J cannot be Noh Sang-won — it is Ground Operations Command chief Kang," he said.

Yeo noted that "J" also appears in other memos on his phone, and that both the special prosecutor's team and the court handling the general treason case had interpreted those instances as referring to the Ground Operations Command chief. "Why is one 'J' Noh Sang-won and another 'J' Kang Ho-pil? I wrote them," he said.

He said "JTSB" stood for the chiefs of the Ground Operations Command, Special Warfare Command, Capital Defense Command and Counterintelligence Command, respectively, and that the memo was written to convey that all four opposed the emergency martial law declaration. "Who among them wanted martial law? They were all against it — that is why I wrote that memo," Yeo said, adding that Kang had told him he was prepared to retire over the matter. Yeo is scheduled to return to court Sept. 10 for further questioning.

The first special prosecutor's team had used the memo as grounds to conclude that the chiefs of the intelligence, special warfare, capital defense and counterintelligence commands had aligned behind the martial law plan roughly a month before it was declared. On that basis, it indicted Noh, former Special Warfare Command chief Kwak Jong-geun, former Capital Defense Command chief Lee Jin-woo and Yeo on charges of performing key duties in an insurrection. The Ground Operations Command was excluded from the indictment on the grounds that there was no evidence of actual troop deployment or specific mission execution by Kang.

The second comprehensive special prosecutor's team, led by Kwon Chang-young, took the opposite view — that "J" referred to Kang — and last month indicted him without detention on charges of performing key duties in an insurrection.

Meanwhile, Yeo faces allegations that he organized and ran an arrest unit after receiving orders from then-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun to detain President Lee Jae Myung — then leader of the Democratic Party of Korea — and other prominent political figures during the Dec. 3 emergency martial law.


won@heraldcorp.com