SEOUL – A South Korean court rejected prosecutors’ request to issue an arrest warrant for the head of a military drone unit as part of an investigation into former president Yoon Suk Yeol and drone operations in North Korea, Yonhap news agency said on July 21.
The Seoul Central District Court dismissed the special counsel’s request, saying the arrest would “excessively limit the suspect’s right to defence”, Yonhap reported.
South Korean prosecutors on July 20 said they had sought court approval to detain the drone unit’s chief, Major-General Kim Yong-dae, after indicting jailed former president Yoon on July 19 on additional charges related to his short-lived declaration of martial law last December.
Maj-Gen Kim was arrested on July 18 without a court warrant, media said. Prosecutors and police are permitted to make an “emergency arrest” if they have a strong belief that someone is guilty of a serious crime and may flee or destroy evidence.
Prosecutors summoned Maj-Gen Kim last week regarding accusations that Yoon had ordered a covert drone operation into the North in 2024 to inflame tensions between the neighbours and justify his martial law decree.
Maj-Gen Kim told reporters that the incident was part of a “clandestine military operation” in response to trash balloons sent from the North and was not intended to provoke the neighbouring nation.
Last October, North Korea said the South had sent drones to scatter anti-North Korea leaflets over Pyongyang, and published photos of the remains of a crashed South Korean military drone.
South Korea at the time declined to disclose whether it had sent the drones. REUTERS
