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| ▲ This file photo shows Yeo In-hyung, the former chief of the Defense Counterintelligence Command. (Yonhap) |
military-martial law
Some 60 troops mobilized for alleged dispatch of 18 drones to N. Korea in 2024: probe
SEOUL, Jan. 15 (Yonhap) -- Dozens of troops were deployed for the military's alleged operation to send 18 drones to North Korea over 11 occasions ahead of former President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law bid in late 2024, a document showed Thursday.
A total of 59 soldiers from the military's front-line drone units were mobilized for the operation conducted to provoke the North and use it as a pretext for the short-lived martial law imposition, according to an internal military document provided by Rep. Choo Mi-ae of the ruling party.
Under the operation conducted between October and November 2024, just a month before the martial law imposition in December the same year, the military allegedly sent a total of 18 drones carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets into Pyongyang and other major North Korean cities over 11 occasions.
Details of the operation remained confidential only among a small number of relevant senior officials and were not shared with the military's front-line units as well as the United States or the U.S.-led United Nations Command, which administers the armistice.
"(The move) could have led to North Korea's attacks ... with the risk of causing grave damage," the defense ministry's disciplinary committee assessed, noting that the fact it was not shared with front-line units could have blocked them from promptly responding in the event of a North Korean provocation.
Based on the findings, the committee reportedly removed from office Yeo In-hyung, the former chief of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, in late December on charges of aiding the enemy by colluding with former President Yoon and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.
Yoon and the two others have been indicted on charges of aiding the enemy in connection with the alleged drone dispatch.
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