National Intelligence Service(NIS) Director Cho Tae-yong has rebutted his former deputy’s testimony that President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered the arrest of key politicians after imposing martial law in December. 

The state intelligence chief appeared at the Constitutional Court on Thursday for the eighth hearing in Yoon’s impeachment trial, alleging factual discrepancies in ex-NIS deputy director Hong Jang-won’s witness account last week. 

According to the NIS chief, his former deputy’s handwritten memo, containing a list of key politicians subject to arrest, was not created at the time that Hong claimed, citing CCTV footage he said shows Hong’s whereabouts.

The NIS director also said it was not Hong but his assistant who wrote the list he’d brought to the court’s attention, after Hong instructed the aide to legibly rewrite his own scribbled memo and then asked for the list again based on memory the following day. 

According to Cho, Hong added more information to the third version of the list, such as “first and second arrests” and “investigation in detention at counterintelligence command detention facility.”

Hong told the court last week that on the night of martial law, he received a phone call from Yoon instructing him to help the military make some arrests. 

He also testified that he subsequently contacted the counterintelligence commander to obtain a specific list of the politicians to be arrested, and then jotted them down on a piece of paper in a dark parking lot outside the NIS chief’s residence at 11:06 p.m. on December 3.

While claiming that Hong was spotted in his own office at the NIS headquarters at the time in question, the NIS director also told the court that Hong’s memo was released after he was notified of the decision to remove him from his post.

The NIS chief said he advised the president to fire Hong, doubting his political neutrality after receiving tips last year that he had contacted opposition lawmakers with personal requests related to his career aspirations.