Ex-intelligence commander's note reveals alleged plans to 'provoke N. Korea at NLL': police

By Kim Seung-yeon

SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) -- A notebook belonging to a former military intelligence commander arrested in a martial law probe had details about plans to "provoke North Korea into an attack" at the de facto inter-Korean sea border, police said Monday.

Police said the memo, spanning 60 to 70 pages, was found in a notebook belonging to former Army Maj. Gen. Noh Sang-won, former chief of the Defense Intelligence Command (DIC), during a raid on his residence in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, south of Seoul.

Noh has been arrested for his suspected involvement in the botched Dec. 3 martial law imposition by President Yoon Suk Yeol. Yoon is now impeached and awaiting a top court decision on whether to remove him from office or reinstate him.

The memo read, "Provoke the North's attack at the NLL," most likely referring to the Northern Limit Line, the western maritime border with Pyongyang in the Yellow Sea.

Police said they have not yet confirmed if any actions were actually carried out to induce an attack from Pyongyang.

But the memo was consistent with the opposition's claims that former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun had attempted to elicit a military action from the North to justify the short-lived martial law.

Noh is known as a close aide of Kim.

The main opposition Democratic Party has accused Kim of ordering the military to directly strike the trash-carrying balloons sent from the North and to deploy South Korean drones over Pyongyang's airspace.

Noh's notebook also contained details about "sealing off the National Assembly" and mentioned politicians, journalists, religious figures, labor unions and judges as "targets for collection," apparently implying arrests.

No details, however, about the martial law decree were found in Noh's notebook, the police said.

Noh is one of the former and incumbent military officers arrested in the widening investigation into the failed martial law attempt by Yoon.

Noh is accused of sharing the martial law plans with his subordinates at a burger franchise two days before the plans were executed.

Noh was dishonorably discharged in 2018 over a sexual harassment case and opened a "fortune-telling" business at his home and has worked as a psychic.

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