Former President Yoon Suk Yeol has once again made the forced claim that he declared emergency martial law to minimize public damage.

Yoon made the remarks on September 17, taking the opportunity to speak directly during the continuation of his appeal trial for charges of leading an insurrection, held by the 12-1 Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court.

"To speak from my college days, during the May 18 Democratization Movement, the State Council met at midnight to declare martial law," Yoon said. "I recall that there was no address to the nation at the time, and a minister simply posted notices regarding the martial law declaration on a blackboard in the press room of the Central Government Complex in Gwanghwamun."

He continued, "However, I thought the public should be informed through a broadcast before they went to sleep and given the opportunity for the National Assembly to respond, so I believed an address to the nation had to be made by at least 10 p.m."

He added that had he declared martial law earlier, it would have coincided with rush hour, causing confusion, and that protests would have erupted in major downtown areas across the country, requiring numerous troops and police forces to respond.

"If we had carried out martial law several times, we would have done it more perfectly and meticulously," he added. "When declaring it for the first time in 45 years, I had thoughts of my own."

These remarks by Yoon on this day are interpreted as being in line with his previous claim that rather than attempting to monopolize state power through emergency martial law, it was a "message-driven martial law" intended to warn the public against the excesses of the opposition party.

In the first trial, Yoon was found guilty of charges of leading an insurrection related to the December 3 emergency martial law and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The first-instance court ruled that Yoon's act of sending troops to the National Assembly met the legal requirements for the crime of insurrection, namely the "purpose of subverting the Constitution" and "riot."

(Reported by Kim Jiuk | Video by Kim Kihyun | Graphics by Yang Hyemin | Produced by SBS Digital News)