The trials for former National Intelligence Service (NIS) leadership including former First Deputy Director Hong Jang-won and former Capital Defense Command 1st Security Brigade Commander (Colonel) Cho Sung-hyun, who were indicted by the 2nd Comprehensive Special Counsel team led by Kwon Chang-young on charges of insurrection, are set to begin soon.

Seoul Central District Court Criminal Settlement Division 38-2 (Presiding Judges Jeong Su-yeong, Choi Yeong-gak, and Jang Sung-jin) will hold the first preparatory hearing for the trial of former Deputy Director Hong and former Director Cho Taeyong, who were indicted on charges including engaging in important missions of insurrection, at 11:00 AM on the 30th of next month.

Former 2nd Deputy Director Hwang Won-jin and former Planning and Coordination Office Director Kim Nam-woo will also stand trial together.

Former Director Cho Taeyong is accused of comprehensively instructing employees during the December 3 emergency martial law to follow the Eulji Exercise (a wartime and state-of-emergency preparedness drill) guidelines and explaining martial law in a defensive manner to U.S. intelligence cooperation agencies.

Former Deputy Director Hong was also handed over to trial after being identified as the person who convened a meeting of subordinate department heads on the day of martial law, established communication networks with the Defense Security Command and the National Police Agency, and ordered personnel to be dispatched to the National Police Agency situation room.

Former Deputy Director Hong is the figure who exposed that he received an order to "round them all up" and wrote down a list of major politicians to be arrested from former Defense Security Commander Yeo In-hyung.

During the investigation by the special counsel team led by Cho Eunseok, he was considered a key witness who helped prove the insurrection charges against former President Yoon Suk Yeol and others.

The trial of Colonel Cho Sung-hyun, who was cleared of charges by the previous special counsel team but indicted by the comprehensive special counsel team, will begin this coming October.

Criminal Settlement Division 38-1 of the same court (Presiding Judges Jang Sung-jin, Jeong Su-yeong, and Choi Yeong-gak) has scheduled the first preparatory hearing for Colonel Cho, who was indicted on charges of engaging in important missions of insurrection, for 10:00 AM on October 2.

Colonel Cho is accused of participating in the insurrection by relaying the order of former Capital Defense Commander Lee Jin-woo to deploy to the National Assembly to the 2nd Special Mission Battalion and the 35th Special Mission Battalion immediately after the declaration of emergency martial law on December 3, 2024.

The special counsel team believes that Colonel Cho actively sympathized with martial law and changed his attitude only after the motion to lift the emergency martial law was passed at the National Assembly.

Colonel Cho previously testified at the Constitutional Court and other venues that although he received instructions from former Commander Lee to enter the National Assembly and drag out lawmakers during the martial law, he judged the purpose of the mission to be unclear, requested a reexamination, and instructed subsequent units to "wait without crossing Seogang Bridge."

(Photo: Yonhap News)