Special counsel raids top prosecutors office over ex-Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung's alleged role in Yoon's martial law bid

GWACHEON, South Korea, April 23 (Yonhap) -- A special counsel team raided the top prosecutors office Thursday over former Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung's alleged involvement in former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law bid in 2024.

The team, tasked with investigating uncovered allegations surrounding Yoon and his short-lived decree, sent investigators to the Supreme Prosecutors Office in southern Seoul to carry out the search and seizure.

Shim is suspected to have played a key role in the failed martial law attempt, which has been ruled by a district court as an insurrection, by reviewing the possible dispatch of public prosecutors to a joint martial law investigation headquarters on Dec. 3, 2024, when Yoon declared martial law.

Shim allegedly held three phone calls with then Justice Minister Park Sung-jae at the time, raising suspicions that Park may have instructed him to send prosecutors to the martial law organ.

The special counsel team is also investigating Shim over his decision not to appeal a court decision in March 2025 that led to Yoon's release from custody following his arrest in January that sparked a courthouse riot by his supporters.

Prosecutors are said to have sought to appeal the court decision at that time, but Shim had reportedly struck down such a move.

Yoon was placed behind bars again in July when a court issued a warrant for his arrest on multiple charges related to his martial law bid, including obstructing investigators from detaining him.

In February, a district court sentenced him to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection through his martial law declaration.

Yoon, currently in custody, has appealed the lower court ruling and is undergoing additional criminal trials in connection with his martial law bid, his wife's alleged corruption and the 2023 death of a Marine.