Travel bans imposed on former PM, finance minister
Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok have been banned from leaving the country for their alleged connection to former President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law attempt in December 2024, according to the police on Tuesday.
The announcement by the Korean National Police Agency comes a day after the KNPA's National Office of Investigation conducted interrogations that lasted approximately 10 hours with Han, Choi and former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min regarding their involvement in the martial law debacle.
During interrogations, the former ministers were reportedly questioned about whether they made false statements about the process of receiving martial law-related documents on the night martial law was declared, based on police analysis of surveillance footage of the presidential office's Cabinet meeting room and hallway.
According to the Korean National Police Agency, a travel ban had already been imposed on Han and Choi around the middle of May. Lee's exit ban, which was already in place since December last year, was also extended.
The police also announced on Tuesday that it has extended the travel bans placed on Yoon's former chiefs of the Presidential Security Service, including former PSS chief Park Chong-jun, former PSS deputy chief Kim Seong-hoon and former head of the PSS' bodyguard division Lee Kwang-woo.
The decision comes after the police obtained secure phone server records on May 23, including calls and texts exchanged between Yoon and government ministers, military officials and PSS personnel.
The police announced three days later that it had detected signs that some call records of a secure phone held by Yoon had been remotely deleted. Though police officials were quoted in local media reports saying that the PSS is believed to be responsible for deleting the records, they are still in the process of narrowing down a suspect.
The police plans to move ahead with investigations by looking into when the three individuals first became aware of Yoon's plan to declare martial law, and whether they knew about the plan in advance before martial law was officially declared.
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