South Korea’s former defence minister, who is accused of playing a lead role in the president’s failed imposition of martial law, has tried to commit suicide in police custody.
Shin Yong-hae, commissioner general of the Korea Correctional Service, told parliament that Kim Mr tried to kill himself at a detention centre in Seoul.
Mr Shin said Mr Kim’s suicide attempt failed and he was in a stable condition.
Mr Kim was formally arrested on Wednesday after a Seoul court approved a warrant for his arrest over allegations he committed a rebellion and carried out an abuse of power.
It comes as South Korean police searched President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office on Wednesday over his martial law move last week, reports said, as some of his top officials were arrested, detained and questioned about their actions in enforcing his orders.
National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho Ji Ho and Kim Bong-sik, head of the metropolitan police agency of the capital, Seoul, were also arrested.
The developments come hours before the main liberal opposition Democratic Party submits a new motion to impeach Mr Yoon as the country’s main law enforcement institutions expand their investigations into whether the president’s declaration amounted to rebellion.
The first impeachment attempt failed last Saturday when the ruling party boycotted the vote. The Democratic Party said it aims to put the new motion to a vote on Saturday.
Yonhap news agency reported that police are searching Mr Yoon’s office but gave no further details.
The country’s main law enforcement institutions are focusing on finding whether Mr Yoon and others involved in imposing martial law committed the crime of rebellion.
They are being investigated for their roles in deploying police forces to the National Assembly to block lawmakers from voting to lift Mr Yoon’s martial law decree.
During a parliamentary hearing Tuesday, Kwak Jong-keun, commander of the Army Special Warfare Command whose troops were sent to parliament, testified that he received direct instructions from Kim Yong-hyun to obstruct lawmakers from entering the Assembly’s main chamber.
Mr Kwak said the purpose of Mr Kim’s instructions was to prevent the 300-member parliament from gathering the 150 votes necessary to overturn Mr Yoon’s martial law order.
Mr Kwak said Mr Yoon later called him directly and asked for the troops to “quickly destroy the door and drag out the lawmakers who are inside”. Mr Kwak said he discussed Mr Yoon’s order with the commander at the scene and that they concluded there was nothing that could be done, ruling out the possibility of threatening the lawmakers by shooting blanks or cutting off electricity.
At the same hearing, senior officer Kim Dae-woo of the military’s counter-intelligence agency said his commander, Yeo In-hyung, asked him if an army bunker in Seoul had space to detain politicians and other figures after martial law was imposed.
Mr Yeo is considered a close associate of Kim Yong Hyun. Last week, Hong Jang-won, a deputy director of the country’s spy agency, said Mr Yoon ordered him to help Yeo’s command to detain some of his political rivals but he ignored the president’s order.