Presidential chief of staff Chung Jin-suk said President Yoon Suk Yeol’s perception that the constitutional order was in a state of crisis is likely what prompted Yoon to declare martial law.

At the third hearing of a National Assembly committee’s probe of insurrection allegations related to martial law, Chung said Thursday that Yoon perceived the source of the crisis as the abuse of legislative power by the opposition-strong parliament.

The chief of staff mentioned what he called the abuse of the Assembly’s powers of impeachment, saying it disrupted state affairs, and the opposition’s indiscriminate slash of the state budget for 2025.

Yoon, who declared martial law on December 3, claimed that the National Assembly had paralyzed the administration by tabling 22 impeachment motions against senior officials and undermined state functions through the budget cut.

When asked by main opposition Democratic Party Rep. Park Sun-won if he had supported Yoon’s decision to declare martial law, Chung said he had not.