South Korea to probe military plan to quell Park protests

SEOUL: South Korea’s president has ordered an investigation into a revelation that the military drew up a plan to mobilise troops if protests worsened over the fate of his impeached predecessor last year, officials said.

Military intervention in civilian affairs is an extremely sensitive issue in South Korea, which was ruled by army-backed dictatorships for decades before achieving democracy in the late 1980s. During the harsh rules, authorities occasionally proclaimed a martial law and other decrees that allowed them to station combat soldiers, tanks and armoured vehicles on streets or at public places like schools to prevent any anti-government demonstrations.

The latest controversy over military intervention flared last week when a ruling party lawmaker disclosed a document showing the military planned to use troops to maintain order if rallies opposing or supporting then-President Park Geunhye grew violent after a Constitutional Court ruling on her impeachment over a corruption scandal.

The Defence Ministry later confirmed the existence of the document, which was written during Park’s presidency by its intelligence arm called the Defence Security Command.

Current President Moon Jae-in, during a visit to India on Monday night, ordered his defence minister to establish a special team to investigate the document, Moon’s spokesman Kim Eui-kyum told reporters in Seoul yesterday.

The investigation team won’t be supervised by Defence Minister Song Young-moo and will be allowed to operate independently for a fair investigation, Kim said.

The Defence Ministry said on Monday that it plans to “tightly and thoroughly” carry out the presidential order. Spokesman Lee Jin-woo refused to answer specific questions on how the investigation would proceed and how far it would reach.

Before the court ruling in March 2017 that eventually upheld Park’s impeachment and formally drove her from office, South Korea was embroiled in its worst political turmoil in decades.

Millions had taken to the street to call for Park’s ouster in largely peaceful demonstrations, but there had also been an increasingly vehement protests supporting Park.

Under the document, the Defence Security Command assessed that anti-Park protesters would call for a “revolution” if the court rejected Park’s impeachment.