Charges include forgery of official documents and violation of presidential records law

Kang Eui-gu, former chief of staff of the presidential secretariat, who was indicted on charges of fabricating documents after the declaration of emergency martial law, walks to a courtroom at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, in May to attend his first-instance sentencing. [Yonhap]
Kang Eui-gu, former chief of staff of the presidential secretariat, who was indicted on charges of fabricating documents after the declaration of emergency martial law, walks to a courtroom at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, in May to attend his first-instance sentencing. [Yonhap]

Kang Eui-gu, a former chief of staff of the presidential secretariat, has had a one-year-and-six-month prison sentence confirmed after being convicted of fabricating the cover page of a martial law proclamation following the Dec. 3, 2024, declaration of emergency martial law — documents intended for use in impeachment or investigation proceedings.

The Supreme Court's First Division, presided over by Justice Cheon Dae-yeop, on Tuesday upheld the lower court's sentence of one year and six months in the final appeal against Kang, who faced charges of forging official documents, using forged official documents, destroying official documents and violating the Act on the Management of Presidential Records.

The court said the lower court's reasoning contained no errors — no violations of logic or rules of evidence, no misapplication of the law on the crime of forging official documents, and no omissions in its judgment.

Kang was accused of fabricating the cover page of an "emergency martial law proclamation" on Dec. 6 and 7, 2024, making it appear as though the proclamation had been issued under former President Yoon Suk Yeol's signature, with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun listed as co-signatories — all for use in related impeachment or investigation proceedings.

He also faced charges of destroying the original cover page bearing the president's signature — a presidential record — and damaging the document used in the presidential office, in order to conceal the fact that the cover page had been created after the fact.

The insurrection special prosecutor's office, led by Special Prosecutor Jo Eun-seok, indicted Kang without detention in December last year, concluding that he had fabricated and then destroyed the post-hoc martial law proclamation together with former President Yoon and former Prime Minister Han.

During the trial, Kang argued that he had prepared the cover page solely as an internal reference document and that it did not constitute an official document. He said it had never been produced, received, managed or stored as an official document and therefore could not be the subject of a forgery charge.

The first-instance court in May found him guilty on most charges, acquitting him only on the count of using a forged official document. The court sentenced him to one year and six months, saying he had "recognized the procedural defect — that the martial law declaration had not been made through a document signed by the president and countersigned by the prime minister and relevant cabinet ministers — and then added a countersignature field that had not existed in the originally distributed proclamation in order to conceal it." It acquitted him of using the forged document on the grounds that the cover page could not be said to have been used in accordance with the document's intended purpose.

The appellate court in August dismissed appeals by both Kang and the special prosecutor, upholding the first-instance ruling. It cited as aggravating factors that Kang held a position requiring him to properly assist the president in carrying out his duties and that he had created a new cover format adding a countersignature field that had not appeared in the originally distributed proclamation. His general acknowledgment of the facts was noted as a mitigating factor.


bell@heraldcorp.com