Building on initial results, special prosecutor Cho Eun-seok's team revealed military intelligence prepared baseball bats and other tools to coerce election officials, amid a 180-day probe indicting 27 and yielding new insights into the Dec. 3 power grab plot.
The special prosecutor dismissed Yoon's camp's 'wake-up call' narrative, calling the declaration a 'palace coup' to monopolize power—echoing prior findings on October 2023 preparations. New evidence showed military officers readying baseball bats, awls, and hammers to force National Election Commission staff into fabricating fraud claims from the April 2024 election.
The probe suggested possible 'spouse-related risks' as a motive but found no confirmed link to Kim Keon Hee. The 238-person team, after two extensions, handled 249 police cases (34 returned), with seven suspects detained and 27 indicted (three by military courts). Proceedings were live-broadcast for the first time.
Democratic Party leader Jung Chung-rae criticized unclear motives on insurrection and foreign collusion, pushing a second probe despite election-year optics risks. Concerns arose over excluding Unification Church allegations. A January first-instance ruling on former PM Han Duck-soo, as a key participant, looms. Deputy prosecutor Park Ji-young stressed courts will determine truth, calling for political restraint.
