During the 12/3 martial law period, four members of the National Intelligence Service command group were indicted on charges of participation in the rebellion.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Choi Won-jeong = Four members of the NIS leadership team during the December 3 martial law period, including former Director Cho Tae-yong and former First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won, were handed over to trial on charges of participation in the rebellion.

On the 19th, the 2nd Comprehensive Special Prosecutor's Team Kwon Chang-young announced that it had indicted four NIS political officials appointed by the Yoon Seok-yeol government, including former Director Cho, former Deputy Director Hong, former Deputy Director Hwang Won-jin, and former Planning and Coordination Office Director Kim Nam-woo, without detention on charges of engaging in important rebellion duties and abuse of power under the National Intelligence Service Act.

Former Director Cho is accused of giving comprehensive instructions to employees at the time of martial law, saying, "Follow the Ulchi Exercises (wartime, incident, and emergency preparedness training)," and explaining to U.S. intelligence cooperation agencies that he was defending martial law.

Former Deputy Director Hong was also brought to trial as the person who convened a meeting of subordinate department heads on the day of martial law, established a contact point (network) with the Armed Forces Counterintelligence Command and the National Police Agency, and ordered personnel to be dispatched to the situation room of the National Police Agency.

Previously, the special prosecutor's team revealed that while investigating NIS officials, the NIS had received a document written in Korean from the National Security Office the morning after martial law with a request to 'explain the background of martial law to friendly countries'.

Afterwards, following former Director Cho's instructions, the foreign affairs department under the First Deputy Director summoned the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Korea to the National Intelligence Service and explained the purpose of the document, and former Deputy Director Hong was briefed on the entire process and approved it, according to the special prosecutor's investigation.

The special prosecutor's team is said to have found expressions suspected of former Deputy Director Hong's involvement in martial law in the work notebooks of employees attending the meeting, which were obtained during a search and seizure process by the National Intelligence Service.

Former Deputy Director Hong's position is that the department heads' meeting convened after the political office meeting on the day of martial law ended in 10 minutes, and was merely a matter of organizing departmental tasks, measures, and manuals the next day under martial law.

Since last May, the special prosecutor's team summoned former Deputy Director Hong as a suspect four times and investigated him four times before deciding that he was guilty of participating in the rebellion.

The special prosecutor's team explained, "Even after martial law was lifted, the fact that he carried out work to explain martial law justification messages to foreign intelligence cooperation agencies in Korea and collected and reported foreign countries' martial law-related responses was also charged with engaging in important civil war missions."

In relation to the 'suspicion of messages justifying martial law', the special prosecutor's team has sent former Director Shin Won-sik and former First Deputy Director Kim Tae-hyo (arrested) of the National Security Office to trial on charges of engaging in important civil war duties and abusing power and interfering with the exercise of rights.

On this day, the special prosecutor's team also indicted former 2nd Deputy Director Hwang Won-jin on charges of ordering the martial law joint investigation headquarters to review plans to dispatch personnel and directing the selection of investigation subjects when the anti-communist investigation authority is restored.

Former Chief of Staff Kim Nam-woo is suspected of ordering the selection of personnel to be dispatched to the martial law situation room at the request of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

However, the special prosecutor's team stated that, aside from the criminal activities of some political officials, there was no evidence of any systematic involvement of general NIS employees in the civil war.

After seizing and searching the National Intelligence Service server last April, the special prosecutor's team summoned 71 former and current employees as witnesses and investigated them 82 times in total, and 11 people as suspects 22 times.

The special prosecutor's team also booked former 3rd Deputy Director Yoon Oh-jun on charges of participating in the rebellion, but dismissed the charges as not guilty.

Four former department heads and two former executives were also given suspended indictments in consideration of their active cooperation in the investigation of crimes.

Previously, the special prosecutor's team also indicted Cho Seong-hyun, former commander of the 1st Security Group of the Army Capital Defense Command (colonel), who received a medal in recognition of his contribution to instructing troops moving to the National Assembly during martial law to 'not cross the Sogang Bridge', on charges of engaging in important civil war missions.

Former Deputy Director Hong Jang-won and Colonel Cho are considered key witnesses who helped substantiate the charges of rebellion against former President Yoon Seok-yeol and others during the investigation by the Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok's team.

Former Deputy Director Hong is the person who revealed that during the impeachment trial of former President Yoon, etc., he received instructions to 'arrest everyone' and wrote down a list of arrests of major politicians from former counterintelligence commander Yeo Yeo-hyung.

Colonel Cho was not booked, saying he responded passively to former Capital Defense Command Commander Lee Jin-woo's instructions, such as ordering his troops "not to cross the Sogang Bridge," and ultimately refused to do so.

There are also voices of criticism from within and outside the special investigation team that the comprehensive special investigation team may have a negative impact on the existing civil war trials by indicting these people without any new evidence.