Kim Yong calls Kim Tae-hyo's arrest 'deeply satisfying,' urges full accountability for insurrection

Kim Yong, former vice chairman of the Democratic Research Institute, called the arrest of Kim Tae-hyo, former first deputy chief of the presidential office's National Security Office, "deeply satisfying" and demanded that every participant in the insurrection be brought to justice.

"Kim Tae-hyo has been arrested. I feel deeply satisfied. It took far too long," Kim wrote on his Facebook page Saturday. He criticized the former official, saying that on the night of the insurrection — when guns were being pointed at the people — the man who called himself a national security commander had telephoned foreign ambassadors to frame the crackdown on citizens as the defense of liberal democracy and a "political protest within the constitution," dressing up the assault on the Korean people as democracy before the world.

Kim added that the same man who would not place his hand over his heart before the national flag had been remarkably diligent when it came to insurrection. "Now that the investigation is closing in, he says he 'thought the president had lost his mind,'" Kim wrote, adding that Kim Tae-hyo then shifted responsibility onto his subordinates. "This is the true character of the man who served as first deputy chief of the National Security Office," he said.

Kim urged investigators to use the arrest as an opportunity to thoroughly examine allegations that pressure was applied to the investigation into the death of Marine Cpl. Chae Sang-byeong. "Those responsible for interfering with the investigation to cover up the death of 20-year-old Cpl. Chae must also be held fully accountable," he wrote. "Every last person involved in the insurrection and in the Cpl. Chae case must be brought before the law. I will stand with the people to see justice done to the end."

Seoul Central District Court judge Boo Dong-sik, who oversees insurrection-related warrant reviews, issued an arrest warrant Friday night for Kim Tae-hyo on charges of playing a key role in insurrection and abusing official authority to obstruct the exercise of rights, citing concerns about destruction of evidence. The arrest came roughly one year and seven months after the Dec. 3 emergency martial law declaration.

Kim Tae-hyo is accused of distributing briefing materials to National Security Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs civil servants — at the direction of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, immediately after the emergency martial law declaration — and directing them to convey messages justifying the martial law to allied nations including the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and the EU.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is pushing to amend the special prosecutor act to extend the comprehensive special prosecutor investigation period — currently set to expire July 24 — by 30 days, with some observers noting that the arrest could provide momentum for the extension legislation.