[On-site Video+] President Yoon said, "The National Assembly dominated by giant opposition parties, a monster who destroyed the constitutional order."

[Anchor]
Yoon Suk Yeol's president breaks his silence and delivers a public statement after five days. President Yun

is said to have recorded in the morning and left, so let's hear the announcement.


[President Yoon Suk Yeol]
I am here today to clarify my position on emergency martial law. Now, the opposition party is dancing wildly, saying the declaration of emergency martial law constitutes a rebellion. Is that really true? Who are the forces that are currently paralysing state affairs and creating a national constitutional dispute in Korea? For the past two and a half years, the big opposition has not stopped stepping down and inciting impeachment to bring down the nation's elected president.

He didn't accept the results of the presidential election. Since the presidential election, a whopping 178 impeachment rallies have been held since the beginning of the term. In order to paralyze the president's state administration, we have pushed for the impeachment of dozens of government officials since the inauguration of our government. Impeached officials are suspended from their duties for a long period of time from prosecution to judgment, even if they are innocent. Before the impeachment was proposed and the prosecution was filed, many public officials voluntarily resigned. The abuse of impeachment has paralyzed the state administration. It has reached the point of impeaching the ministers, the head of the Board of Audit and Inspection and prosecutors who investigated their misconduct, including the head of the Communications Commission, and intimidating judges. It's a bulletproof impeachment to cover up their misconduct, and it's a total breakdown of public office discipline and law and order.

In addition, 27 times, he has proposed an unconstitutional special prosecutor bill and launched a political incitement offensive. At the end of the day, criminals are pushing for self-bulletproof legislation that gives themselves indulgence. The National Assembly, dominated by a large opposition party, has become a monster that destroys the constitutional order of liberal democracy, not the foundation of liberal democracy. What do you mean if this is a state of paralysis or a national crisis? It's not just this. Now, the big opposition party is threatening national security and social security.

For example, in June, three Chinese people were caught filming a U.S. aircraft carrier anchored in Busan by flying drones. On their smartphones and laptops, photos of South Korea's military facilities were found for at least two years. Last month, a Chinese man in his 40s was caught filming the national garden with a drone. It has been confirmed that this person went straight to the NIS as soon as he entered the country from China and did this.

However, there is no way to punish foreigners for espionage under the current law. To prevent this situation, we have tried to amend the criminal law's espionage clause, but the big opposition party is stubbornly blocking it. It is also attempting to abolish the National Security Law because it was not enough to deprive the National Intelligence Service of its right to investigate anti-aircraft during the previous administration. Don't you mean not to catch spies who threaten national security? Despite North Korea's illegal nuclear armament and missile threat provocations, GPS disturbances, filth balloons, and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions espionage, the main opposition party not only sympathized with this, but rather sided with North Korea and scratched the government struggling to respond.

It is argued that UN sanctions against North Korea over North Korea's illegal nuclear development should be lifted first. I don't know which country's political party and which country's National Assembly is. The prosecution and police's budget for special expenses and special activities for next year has been cut to 0 won. It is an important budget used for investigating cases of financial fraud, crimes against the socially underprivileged, drug investigations, and anti-aircraft investigations. It has also significantly reduced the budget for responding to drugs and deepfake crimes. Beyond obstructing the investigation against them, it blocks investigations of civilian criminals such as drug investigations and gangster investigations. Aren't you going to make Korea a spy paradise, a drug den, and a gangster country? Aren't these people anti-state forces trying to ruin the country? Then, the National Assembly's budget to maintain their privileges increased. The economy is also in a crisis state of emergency. The big opposition party is trying to turn off the growth engine of the Republic of Korea. You can see well from next year's budget cut by the Democratic Party.

The
nuclear power plant ecosystem support budget has been cut, and the Czech nuclear power plant export support budget has been cut by 90%. The budget related to the development of next-generation nuclear power plants has been cut almost entirely. The budget for future growth engines such as basic science research, quantum, semiconductor, and bio has also been drastically cut. The East Sea gas field drilling budget and the so-called blue whale project budget were actually all cut. We have even touched on youth job support projects, projects to support the formation of assets for vulnerable children, and child care allowances. We also cut the budget for fostering innovative growth funds and small and medium-sized companies to create an industrial ecosystem. The reserve fund for disaster countermeasures was cut by a whopping KRW 1 trillion and the R&D budget related to vaccine development for pandemic preparation was also cut. As such, the state affairs of the Republic of Korea are paralyzed and social order is disturbed by the parliamentary dictatorship and tyranny of the large opposition party, making it impossible to carry out normal administration and justice.

People, so far, I'm sure you know a lot. However, there are many more serious things that I have not been able to reveal in person until I make a strict decision on emergency martial law. In the second half of last year, there was a hacking attack by North Korea on constitutional institutions and government agencies, including the Election Commission. The National Intelligence Service found this and wanted to check the information leakage and the safety of the computer system. All other agencies agreed to inspect the system under their own observation by the National Intelligence Service. However, the Election Commission rejected it completely, claiming that it was a constitutional institution. Then, when the NEC's large-scale hiring fraud occurred and was audited and investigated, he took a step back and said he would be inspected by the National Assembly. However, only a very small portion of the entire system equipment was inspected and the rest did not.

I only checked some of the system equipment, but the situation was serious. When an NIS employee tried to hack as a hacker, data could be manipulated as much as possible and there was virtually no firewall. The password was also very simple, so it was like '12345'. The system security management company was also a very small company that lacked expertise. As president at the time, I was shocked when I received the report from the National Intelligence Service. How can the people trust the results of the election when the computer system that manages the election, which is the core of democracy, is such a sham? The NEC also joined the NIS' security inspection process and watched it, but only repeated the excuse that they had not manipulated the data themselves. The NEC is a constitutional institution and judicial officials are members, so seizure and search by warrant or forced investigation is practically impossible. If you don't cooperate on your own, it's impossible to find out the truth. Even ahead of the April 24 general election, we called for improvement in the problem area, but we don't know if it has improved properly.


That's why I instructed the Secretary of Defense this time to inspect the Board of Elections computer system. When the main opposition Democratic Party recently announced that it would impeach the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, prosecutors, and the head of the Board of Audit and Inspection, a constitutional institution, I decided that I could no longer just watch. I thought I should do something. It was clear that they were going to soon put the sword of impeachment on the judiciary as well. I came to think of invoking emergency martial law. I decided to exercise the president's power within the constitutional framework, although the large opposition party continued to abuse its constitutional power and repeated the constitutional measures.

Judging the current state of state paralysis as a state of collapse of administrative and judicial functions due to social disturbance, martial law was invoked, but its purpose was to warn the public to stop the anti-national defeat of the large opposition party. By doing so, we wanted to prevent the collapse of the liberal democratic constitutional order and normalize the functioning of the state. In fact, after the lifting of martial law on December 4, the Democratic Party announced that it would suspend the impeachment of the auditor and the head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, so I thought the short-term message through martial law had some effect.

However, I just did the impeachment, which I said I would put on hold two days later. It meant to get rid of the cause of emergency martial law. In the first place, I told the Secretary of Defense that unlike in the past martial law, I would take emergency measures to notify the people of the current crisis and appeal to them. So he said he would only put in a small number of troops needed to maintain order and not work as a working-level chief, but withdraw the troops as soon as the National Assembly voted to lift martial law. In fact, when the National Assembly voted to lift martial law, the Defense Minister, who was in the Ministry of Defense building, came to my office and ordered the immediate withdrawal of troops.

This emergency measure, which I issued as president, is not intended to destroy the constitutional order and national constitution of the Republic of Korea, but to protect and restore the constitutional order and national constitution by informing the people of the crisis of the collapse. The reason for putting troops into the National Assembly, even though it is small, is to symbolically inform the destructive behavior of the large opposition party and to maintain order in preparation for a large number of National Assembly officials and citizens who watched the martial law declaration broadcast, not to dissolve the National Assembly or paralyze its function. With less than 300 unarmed troops, it is impossible to take control of that vast parliamentary space for a considerable period of time. Martial law as in the past requires tens of thousands of troops and extensive prior discussion and preparation, but I instructed the defense minister to move the troops after informing the public through the announcement of the martial law announcement.

So, the announcement was broadcast at 10:30 p.m., and the deployment of troops took place just after 11:30 p.m. to 12 a.m., and when the National Assembly decided to lift martial law just after 1 p.m., the military was ordered to withdraw immediately. In the end, it takes only about an hour or two for troops to be deployed. If I had tried to paralyze the function of the National Assembly, I would have invoked the martial law on weekends, not weekdays. It would have taken power cuts and water cuts to the National Assembly building, and would have restricted broadcasting. But none of it was done. The deliberation was carried out normally at the National Assembly, and the whole nation watched the situation of the National Assembly through the broadcast. In order to restore and protect the liberal democratic constitutional order, inevitable emergency measures were taken to appeal to the people to the ruinous situation, but they made every effort to prevent safety accidents and to move only elite troops above non-military officers.

In preparation for this emergency decree, I only discussed it with the Secretary of Defense and informed the President's Office and some members of the Cabinet at a Cabinet meeting just before the declaration. There were also many dissenting opinions that were concerned from the perspective of each person's work. I explained that such a move is inevitable in the current situation from the perspective of the president looking at the overall state of affairs. All military officials have followed orders to move troops since the president's announcement of the emergency martial law, so they are not at fault at all. And let me be clear, I made sure that I did not block National Assembly officials from entering the National Assembly, so that a huge number of lawmakers and people entered the National Assembly yard, the main building, and the plenary hall, and the agenda for the lifting of the decree was also deliberated.

And yet somehow they're creating so many false demagogues to bring down the president by creating a crime of rebellion. Is there a two-hour rebellion? Is it a riot to put a small number of troops in for a while to maintain order? What would be the reason for the
giant opposition party to rush impeachment with false incitement? It's only one. As the conviction of the leader of the large opposition party is imminent, he is trying to avoid it through the impeachment of the president and hold an early presidential election. He is trying to cover up his crimes and take control of the state even by breaking down the state system. Isn't this a disorderly conduct of the National Constitution? Whether you impeach me or investigate me, I will stand up to it with pride. I have already said that I will not avoid the issue of legal and political responsibility regarding the declaration of martial law.

Since my inauguration, I have never been concerned with personal popularity or presidency or preservation for a single moment. If there had been a thought of preserving the seat, there would have been no fight against the civil disorder forces of the National Constitution, and there would have been no more declaration of emergency martial law like this. I couldn't turn away from the country and the people by just maintaining my five-year term. I couldn't betray the will of the people who elected me. He tried to protect the liberal democracy and constitutional order of the Republic of Korea against the parliamentary dictatorship of the large opposition party, which used to riot legislation with the power of the majority every day and was only bent on bulletproof. How can the president's constitutional decision and act of governance, which he decided was the only way to go, become a civil war? The exercise of the president's right to declare emergency martial law is an act of governance that is not subject to judicial review, such as the exercise of amnesty and diplomatic rights.

People. Right now, the opposition is trying to take me down as a felon and take me down from the presidency right now. What would happen if the destructive National Constitution and disorderly forces ruled this country? Unconstitutional laws, self-exempt laws, and economic despondency laws will pass the National Assembly indiscriminately and destroy this country completely. Future growth engines, including the nuclear power industry and the semiconductor industry, will be eliminated, and Chinese solar facilities will destroy forests across the country. The South Korea-U.S. alliance, which is the basis of our security and economy, and cooperation between South Korea, the U.S., and Japan will collapse again. North Korea will further threaten our lives by upgrading its nuclear weapons and missiles. Then, what is the future of this country, the Republic of Korea? Wouldn't it be a country where spies are active, drugs destroy future generations, and gangs are installed?

Until now, the forces and criminal groups that led the paralysis of state affairs and the disorder of the National Constitution should take control of state affairs and prevent them from threatening the future of the Republic of Korea.
I'll fight to the end. My fellow citizens, the emergency martial law that was exercised by the president's legal authority to normalize state affairs to protect the country in a catastrophic emergency of parliamentary paralysis is a high-level political judgment of the president and can be controlled only by requesting the National Assembly to lift it. Many people know that this is the case law of the judiciary and the majority opinion of constitutional academia. I immediately accepted the National Assembly's call for lifting. Some people have different ideas about the requirements for martial law, but seeing emergency measures to save the country as an act of rebellion to ruin the country puts our constitution and legal system in serious danger, as many constitutional scholars and lawyers point out. I'd like to ask. Now, people who are dancing crazy swords here and there, where and what on earth did the country do until it came to this state? Are you saying that you never thought that the situation in the Republic of Korea was in danger and in crisis? I ask the public officials. In the severe security situation and the global economic crisis, please work hard without being swayed by protecting the safety and people's livelihoods of the people.

People. In the past two and a half years, I have fought against tyranny under the guise of injustice, injustice and democracy to protect and rebuild liberal democracy, looking only at the people. I sincerely appeal to you to become one in the path of protecting our liberal democracy, the Republic of Korea, which has been protected with blood and sweat. I will fight with the people until the last minute. It's a short time, but I apologize again to the people who would have been worried about playing with martial law. Please believe in my passionate loyalty to the people. Thank you.