Martial law troops targeted National Election Commission first

[Anchor]

Now, let's look at the movements right after the declaration of martial law.

It has been confirmed that the martial law troops went to the National Election Commission even before the National Assembly after the declaration of martial law.

The reason behind it was another point of curiosity, and former Minister Kim Yong-hyun stated that it is related to the conspiracy theories of election fraud that have persisted since the last general election.

Reporter Choo Jae-hoon.

[Report]

On the night of Dec. 3, President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law.

The first place the martial law troops stormed was the National Election Commission, even before the National Assembly.

Around 10:30 PM, a preliminary team of about ten entered the NEC in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, and confiscated the mobile phones of five night duty staff members.

[Kim Yong-bin/Secretary General of the National Election Commission: "The additional 100 troops only conducted surveillance operations in the first-floor lobby and occupied the premises for a total of about 3 hours and 20 minutes."]

At 12:30 AM on the following day, Dec. 4, about 110 martial law troops were deployed to the Gwacheon government building, and around the same time, troops were also dispatched to the training center of the Suwon Election Commission in Gyeonggi Province and the Public Opinion Survey Deliberation Commission in Gwanak-gu, Seoul.

As suspicions grow regarding the large-scale deployment of martial law troops to the Election Commission, even the martial law commander at the time did not know the reason.

[Ahn Gyu-baek/Member of the National Assembly Defense Committee/Democratic Party: "What is the specific reason for taking special measures targeting the Election Commission?"]

[Park An-su/Army Chief of Staff/Former Martial Law Commander: "That is something I do not know."]

In this regard, former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, who commanded the martial law troops at the time, stated in a text conversation with KBS, "It was deemed necessary to secure systems and facilities to determine whether to investigate the allegations of election fraud."

This was to assess whether to investigate the conspiracy theories about election fraud that had been raised mainly by some conservative groups since the last general election.

During this process, there were allegations that the martial law troops occupied the Information Management Bureau of the Election Commission, which manages election-related data, but the Election Commission denied this.

[Lee Hae-sik/Member of the National Assembly Security and Public Administration Committee/Democratic Party: "They said they searched the server (of the Information Management Bureau) and took data, but did you receive any special reports regarding this?"]

[Kim Yong-bin/Secretary General of the National Election Commission: "No special measures were taken; however, I was informed that personnel monitoring was conducted on night duty staff according to martial law regulations."]

In the future, during various investigations into the activities of the martial law troops, confirmations regarding the purpose of entering the Election Commission and whether election-related data was secured are expected to take place.

KBS News, Choo Jae-hoon.