Yoon and his legal team have repeatedly invoked far-right claims, without evidence, of a conspiracy between South Korea’s left-wing opposition and Pyongyang as they defend the president from criminal charges of insurrection and try to convince the constitutional court to reinstate him.

Colonel Kim Hyun-tae, who leads the country's elite 707th Special Mission Group, was in charge of troops attempting to stop lawmakers voting down Yoon's shock order.