President Yoon Suk Yeol has denied ordering the removal of lawmakers from the National Assembly as they gathered to vote on the motion to revoke his martial law decree. 

Yoon denied the allegation Tuesday at the Constitutional Court during a hearing in his impeachment trial, in response to a question from the court’s acting President Moon Hyung-bae.

Appearing at his trial for the first time while in pretrial detention on suspicion of leading an insurrection, Yoon also denied giving a memo to finance minister Choi Sang-mok ordering him to draw up a budget for the operation of an emergency legislative body.

The president said it was only after lifting martial law that he learned through media reports about such a memo.

Yoon added that if such orders were given, former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun is the only one who could have known about them.

If Yoon attempted to paralyze parliament through martial law, either by blocking lawmakers from seeking to lift the decree or by creating a new legislative body, this could constitute grounds for an insurrection case.