Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun denied that President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered the arrest of politicians during the short-lived martial law on December 3.

At a hearing of Yoon's impeachment trial on Thursday, Kim, as a witness, was asked by the National Assembly's legal team if he had called former Defense Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyung on the night of martial law to deliver a list of arrest subjects.

The former minister said the list was not of politicians to be apprehended, but figures of concern who were likely to violate the decree, and that it was passed on for their monitoring.

Kim also denied allegations that there were plans to detain the "arrested politicians" inside an underground bunker at the Capital Defense Command.

He said the bunker does not even have a bathroom and is not a place equipped to detain people.