▲ Maj. Gen. Kim Yong-dae, chief of the Drone Operations Command, speaks to reporters upon arrival at the Seoul High Prosecutors Office in the capital on July 17, 2025, to be questioned by a special counsel team over former President Yoon Suk Yeol's insurrection charges in connection with his Dec. 3 martial law declaration. (Yonhap)

special counsel-drone command

Special counsel detains drone command chief in martial law probe

SEOUL, July 20 (Yonhap) -- Special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team said Sunday it has detained the head of the Drone Operations Command and sought a warrant to formally arrest him over charges related to former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law attempt.

Maj. Gen. Kim Yong-dae was detained without a warrant on Friday, a day after the special counsel team questioned him over charges of benefiting the enemy, drafting fabricated documents and power abuse.

The charges stem from allegations he followed Yoon's order to dispatch drones to North Korea last year to justify the former president's future declaration of martial law.

"At 2 p.m. today, we requested an arrest warrant for Commander Kim," the special counsel team said in a notice to the press. "We requested the arrest warrant based on crimes we have verified so far, as there was reason to place him in custody."

With Kim in custody, the special counsel team is expected to probe deeper into charges Yoon incited foreign aggression by ordering the drone dispatch.

The team suspects Yoon gave the order directly to the command without going through the defense ministry or the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in order to incite the North's retaliation and use it as a pretext for imposing martial law.

Kim has rejected the allegations, saying the drone operation followed legal procedures under instructions from the JCS and had nothing to do with the martial law attempt.

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