South Korea’s former President Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted Monday on new charges of abusing power and aiding an enemy state for his attempt to impose martial law on the country briefly last year.
Yoon allegedly tried to engineer military conflict between South and North Korea so that he could be justified in declaring martial law, according to evidence found on his cell phone.
Former South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and former military intelligence chief Yeo In-hyung were also involved in the conspiracy.
They were also indicted on the same charges, a spokesperson for South Korea said.
Yoon is accused of ordering a covert drone operation into North Korea in October.
North Korea published photos of a smashed drone around the same time.
The regime also accused its southern neighbor of dropping anti-North Korea pamphlets over Pyongyang.
At the time, South Korea did not disclose whether it had sent the drone.
Martial law was declared on December 3.
However, the National Assembly overturned the order within hours.
The apparent motive for declaring martial law was for Yoon to disband the National Assembly and rule by decree.
The move would have turned South Korea back into an authoritarian dictatorship.
The National Assembly was able to thwart Yoon’s alleged plans, and he was impeached and suspended from office by the end of the month.
Yoon, Kim, and Yeo were all arrested.
Kim tried to commit suicide in prison.
Yoon and Kim have denied that the martial law attempt was a self-coup to get rid of political enemies.
However, Yeo said he regretted following the order from Yoon.
Yoon may also have been trying to end investigations into himself and his wife, Kim Keon-hee, and top officials.
His administration was plagued with dissension and a lack of consensus that made it difficult to get anything done.
The fall of Yoon, a member of the nation’s right-wing party, led to the election of Lee Jae-myung, of the liberal Democratic Party, in a special election in April.
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