---
title: "South Korean prosecutors seek 20-year term for Choo in martial law case"
description: "Daegu mayor Choo Kyung-ho denies obstructing the parliamentary vote to lift the December 2024 martial law declaration"
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-09-30T08:03:15.786Z
modified: 2026-09-30T13:16:36Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/south-korean-prosecutors-seek-20-year-term-for-choo-in-marti-ad8dcf
language: en
tags: ["politics", "trump", "war", "law", "security", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# South Korean prosecutors seek 20-year term for Choo in martial law case

*Daegu mayor Choo Kyung-ho denies obstructing the parliamentary vote to lift the December 2024 martial law declaration*

By rews desk · September 30, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/south-korean-prosecutors-seek-20-year-term-for-choo-in-marti-ad8dcf

## In brief

- Special prosecutors requested a 20-year prison sentence for Daegu mayor Choo Kyung-ho
- The verdict is scheduled for November 18 at the Seoul Central District Court
- Choo is accused of obstructing the vote to lift the December 3, 2024 martial law declaration
- Choo denies prior knowledge of martial law or any request from then-President Yoon Suk Yeol

A South Korean special prosecution team on Wednesday requested a 20-year prison sentence for Daegu mayor Choo Kyung-ho, who is accused of obstructing lawmakers’ vote to lift the martial law declared on December 3, 2024.

The special counsel team led by prosecutor Cho Eun-suk made the request at the concluding hearing of Choo’s trial on a charge of engaging in a key insurrection duty, held at the Seoul Central District Court’s criminal division 34 under presiding judge Han Sung-jin, according to the Chosun Ilbo. The court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on November 18.

Choo was floor leader of the People Power Party at the time of the martial law declaration. Prosecutors say he changed the venue of a party general meeting from the party headquarters in Yeouido, including to the National Assembly, in a way that obstructed fellow lawmakers from voting to lift martial law, after receiving a phone request from the side of then-President Yoon Suk Yeol to cooperate with the decree.

“On the day of martial law, citizens confronted the martial law troops with their bare bodies,” the special counsel team told the court. “But the defendant, the floor leader, paid no heed and sat in the floor leader’s office one floor below the main chamber, helping the insurrection forces by disrupting his fellow lawmakers’ movements so that the National Assembly could not bring martial law to a halt.”

Prosecutors also said Choo attended a meeting of party, government and presidential officials the day after martial law was lifted, where they discussed creating arguments to justify the decree and blocking impeachment and a special counsel investigation to prevent the suspension of Yoon’s term, and that he scuttled an impeachment motion. “The defendant turned on its head the authority that the constitution entrusted to the National Assembly to demand the lifting of martial law,” the team said, asking for a severe punishment to show “the price of betraying the constitution and deceiving the people.”

Choo’s side denied the charges, saying the evidence is insufficient. “There is no evidence that the defendant was aware of martial law in advance, and the evidence is insufficient to support that he accepted a request from former President Yoon’s side,” his lawyer said. The lawyer added that the special counsel “fitted together the charges toward a specific intended direction based on all manner of hypotheses and conjecture, without evidence.”

In his final statement, Choo said the special counsel was “distorting the facts entirely.” He said of the changed meeting venue: “I regret that I should have communicated more carefully amid the urgent and chaotic situation, but it is absolutely not the case that I tried to obstruct lawmakers’ vote to lift martial law.” He said he had instead asked the National Assembly speaker to resolve entry problems so that his party’s lawmakers could enter parliament.

“I have been quietly reflecting on whether I should have decided more swiftly and acted more actively that day, and I believe the shortcomings and regrets of that day are a burden I must carry,” Choo said. “I did not know of martial law in advance, and I never received any request from former President Yoon Suk Yeol.”