Kang Ui-gu Sentenced to 1 Year and 6 Months in First Trial Over 'Post-facto Martial Law Proclamation'

"Created a New Cover Page Not Included in the Original Proclamation"

Kang Ui-gu, former Presidential Office Chief of Staff, who was indicted on charges of drafting post-facto documents after the 12·3 Martial Law, has been sentenced to prison in the first trial.

Kang Eegu, Former Chief of the Presidential Office. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

On May 28, the 30th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judge Park Okhee) sentenced former Chief Kang to 1 year and 6 months in prison on charges including drafting and using false official documents and violating the Presidential Records Management Act. The court ordered his immediate detention, citing concerns over flight risk. Previously, Special Prosecutor Cho Eunseok's team had requested a five-year prison sentence for Kang.

The court stated, "Although the defendant was a high-ranking official who assisted the president at close range, after realizing that the martial law proclamation was not made with the president’s signature and countersignatures from cabinet ministers, he created a new cover page—one that did not exist in the originally distributed proclamation—to conceal this flaw." The court explained that the gravity of his wrongdoing warranted the severity of the sentence.

The court found Kang guilty of writing the cover page of the martial law proclamation three days after the declaration, on December 6, 2024, obtaining signatures from former President Yoon Suk Yeol, former Prime Minister Han Ducksoo, and former Defense Minister Kim Yonghyeon, storing the document, and then destroying it.

However, regarding the charge of using false official documents, the court found him not guilty, explaining, "The defendant merely kept the document in his desk drawer and later destroyed it. This act alone cannot be seen as undermining the public trust in the document."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.