When asked to ”raise your hand if you learned about martial law by watching TV,” military leaders raised their hands in unison - South Korean media

On the 10th, senior military officials attending the National Assembly's Defense Committee all raised their hands in unison in response to a question from an opposition lawmaker asking, "Raise your hand if you learned about the state of emergency on December 3rd after watching TV."
Rep. Heo Young of the Democratic Party of Korea asked Martial Law Commander Park An-soo (Army Chief of Staff) who attended a National Assembly committee that day, "Why didn't you give the order to withdraw?
Prior to this, Choo Mi-ae, a member of the National Assembly's Defense Committee, said, "The secretary-general of the military counterintelligence command had been informed by Yeo In-hyun, the hearing director.
"At the direct instruction of the commander, we prepared 'Reference Materials for the Joint Investigation Headquarters on Martial Law Incidents,' and obtained the documents that were reported to Commander Yeo last month."
The report also includes the martial law decree issued by Martial Law Commander Lee Hee-sung on May 17, 1980, which ends with the following statement: "Anyone who violates this decree must
"Anyone who violates the martial law will be arrested, detained and searched without a warrant and will be severely punished," it reads. Choo claims that the proclamation issued by Commander Park regarding the martial law this time appears to have been based on this.
The reference materials also include the contents of the Martial Law Act, which stipulates that the Martial Law Commander can exercise special powers to make arrests, detain, seize and search in "emergency situations."
Rep. Heo said, "Commander Park has not fulfilled his role as martial law commander. He said, 'I cannot accept that the martial law commander should do something like that.'
Heo further said that Commander Park had responded, "I first learned about President Yoon Seok-yeol's declaration of emergency martial law on TV. I felt that there was something wrong with it."
"The Martial Law Commander, Deputy Martial Law Commander, and Capital Defense Commander initially said, 'I found out about it on TV,' but the facts have all become clear," he said.
"There are 50 commanders sitting here. Anyone who saw the TV and learned about martial law, please raise your hand," he asked. The senior officials of the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the commanders of the operational forces, who were sitting behind Commander Park, raised their hands.
About two-thirds of the 50 or so active-duty military personnel, including commanders, raised their hands. In response, Rep. Heo raised his voice, saying, "They should be ashamed of themselves."
Earlier, Army officer Kwak Jeong-geun said, "I learned about emergency martial law by watching it on TV."
The Special Forces Commander stated that he had learned about the details of the martial law on the 1st, before it was declared on the 3rd. However, former Minister of National Defense Kim Young-hyun said on the 1st,
When he gave his orders to "secure six locations, including the committee, the Democratic Party headquarters, and a polling agency," he did not mention martial law, but he said he had inferred that it was a state of martial law.
In response to the question, "Why didn't you ask Minister Kim about the things you were concerned about at the time?" Commander Kwak said, "When I asked the Minister about it, I never thought it would actually happen.
"Commander Kwak has not testified to the prosecution that he knew about the martial law in advance," said Park Beom-gye, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea.
"He told me that he did not make a statement because the stories of those involved in the standing martial law matched those of the people," Commander Kwak said.
When asked whether the stories matched up (actual accounts) or whether that was how he felt," he replied, "It seems that the stories match up (that most of the people involved found out about the martial law through media reports)."
In addition to Commander Kwak, most of the general-ranked commanders who attended the National Defense Committee responded to the question, "Did you know about martial law before it was declared?" by saying, "I didn't know in advance.
” while one general officer replied, “We were aware of the signs.”