South Korean general gives a confused account of a failed crackdown

SEOUL - South Korea’s military – agents of terror and violence in the 1970s and ’80s – spent decades scrupulously cleaning up its image to become what many people in the country came to see as a modern and disciplined force.

But that image was shattered on Dec 5 when the general who led a short-lived spasm of martial law this week was grilled in Parliament, a rambling appearance that cast the military as ill-prepared and disorganised from the top down.

“We were not militarily prepared because it was put into action in such a hurry,” General Park An-su, the army chief of staff, told a parliamentary hearing on Dec 5. “There was confusion.”

His testimony offered the first opportunity for lawmakers to question the military about the martial law order handed down on the night of Dec 3 by President Yoon Suk Yeol. The decree plunged the country into a political crisis, sparking widespread anger that drove thousands of protesters to the streets. Mr Yoon was forced to reverse course after just six hours.

Gen Park insisted that he had not had any role in the planning: He told lawmakers he had been caught off guard, first learning of it when Mr Yoon announced the extraordinary move on television. The military’s follow-up announcement, under his name, banned “all political activities” and public rallies and asserted control over media outlets, among other steps. But in his account on Dec 5, Gen Park claimed he had not read it until his signature was requested.

He described being at a loss over how to proceed as commander, unsure of what steps to take beyond trying to set up a new office.

His testimony was clearly aimed at rebutting the idea that the military had returned to its old, brutal ways. But it appeared unlikely to ease any of the anger from protesters – some of whom had lived through the traumatic era of military rule and had been part of the popular uprising that ushered in South Korea’s democracy.

The country’s deputy defence minister, Mr Kim Seon-ho, testified that Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun had ordered in the troops.

The defence minister, a former bodyguard of the president, resigned before the hearings and did not testify. NYTIMES