South Korea sees high -level indictment of the former Prime Minister, the wife of the former president of the months after political chaos

The wife of the former president of South Korea imprisoned Yoon Suk Yeol and his former Prime Minister were charged on Friday as part of the investigations on his administration and his attempt to overcome the opposition by declaring martial law.

Yoon has sparked the most serious political crisis in South Korea for decades when he has tried to overcome a legislature dominated by the opposition which blocked its program by suddenly declaring martial law.

His decree lasted only hours but triggered months of troubles that paralyzed politics, disrupted foreign policy and shook the economy.

Yoon was dismissed, then withdrawn from his duties in April and was rearraised last month after his conservative party lost a special election to choose his successor.

The new government has appointed three special prosecutors to investigate both the period of martial law and the suspicions of corruption that hampered Yoon during his mandate.

Yoon’s wife, ex-minister of the old

A team led by special prosecutor Min Jong-Ki said that Yoon’s wife Kim Keon Hee had violated the laws on financial markets and political financing laws and to receive bribes, about two weeks after his arrest.

A separate team led by the Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-Suk said that former Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo had been accused of having encouraged the taxation of martial law by Yoon, who, according to investigators, was equivalent to a rebellion, as well as to falsify and destroy official documents, and lie under oath.

Dozens of people have been arrested or investigated in the debacle of the Martial law of Yoon, allegations of corruption involving his wife and other controversies of his three years in power, including an alleged concealment of the death of a navy during a rescue of the floods in 2023.

The main suspects include the former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who was accused of planning martial law with Yoon and sending troops to the National Assembly in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent legislators from voting to raise him. More than 60 people were charged separately for riots in a Seoul court which issued Yoon’s arrest warrant in January.

Deputy Special Prosecutor Park, Ji-Young, told a television briefing that Han was the highest civil servant who could have blocked Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law.

Park said Han had always played an “active” role in the Declaration of the Martial Law of Yoon by trying to pass Yoon’s decree during a meeting of the Cabinet’s council as a means of giving it “procedural legitimacy”.

Han maintained that he transported to Yoon that he opposed his martial law plan. The Cho team previously asked the Central Court of Seoul to issue an arrest warrant against Han. But the court rejected this request on Wednesday, claiming that it determined that there was little chance that Han was fleeing or destroying evidence.

Kim is the first former first lady to be imprisoned in Korea

While the self-inflicted fall of Yoon has extended a long sequence of South Korean presidents ending badly, Kim is the first former first lady to be arrested and charged.

Almost all of the former South Korean presidents, or family members and aid, were mired in scandals towards the end of their conditions or after their departure. The last two elected presidents of the previous iterations of Yoon – Park Geun -Hye and Lee Myung -Back – were both sentenced to long prison deadlines for corruption accusations before being forgiven and released.

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South Korean legislators become tapers after the dismissal of the acting president

Members of the Southern Power Party surrounded the president of the National Assembly Woo Won-Shik’s Podium after the Parliament adopted a motion of indictment by Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo, the acting president of the country.

The imposition of the surprising but poorly planned martial law of Yoon came in the midst of an intense dead end with the Liberals, but many criticisms speculated Yoon’s decision was probably an attempt to frustrate a push led by the opposition to open an independent investigation into the allegations of his wife.

Kim and Yoon are suspected of exerting an excessive influence on the power of the power of the conservative people to appoint a candidate favored during a legislative election in 2022, allegedly at the request of the electoral broker Myung Tae-Kyun. Myung is accused of having conducted free opinion investigations for Yoon which used manipulated data, perhaps helping him to win the presidential primaries of the party before his election to the presidency in March 2022.

Before her arrest, Kim apologized for having caused public concern, but also suggested that she would deny the allegations against her, describing herself as “someone insignificant”.

In a statement published through his lawyers on Friday, Kim did not make specific comments on his accusations, but said that the media reported suspicions as if they were “confirmed” and that it planned “to attend the tests quietly”.

Han, who was appointed Prime Minister, post No. 2 of the country, by Yoon, was the head of actress of South Korea after Yoon was dismissed in mid-December.

After Yoon was officially rejected as president in a decision of the Constitutional Court, Han was supposed to continue directing the goalkeeper’s government until the June presidential election, but resigned to stand in the elections. He retired from the race after failing to win the appointment of the People Power Party.