Martial Law Forces Legally Searched National Election Commission for Election Fraud Evidence

2024-12-6, Tara O

With the short-lived Martial Law during 3-4 December 2024, the public wondered what it was all about.  It is now revealed that the Martial Law troops were dispatched to the National Election Commission (NEC) even prior to the National Assembly.  A picture of a box being removed from the NEC raises hope that the election fraud may finally be investigated.

In fact, the Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun conveyed to SBS in an interview that the martial law troops were sent to the NEC “to determine the necessity of an investigation into allegations of election fraud by the NEC” (“선관위 부정선거 의혹 관련 수사의 필요성을 판단하기 위해”). (Kim resigned as the Defense Minister on 5 December 2025).

The Martial Law troops arrived at the National Election Commission’s headquarters at the Gwacheon Government Building at 10:30 p.m. on 3 December 2024, which was about 3 minutes after President Yoon announced implementing Martial Law (which was around 10:27 p.m.).  By contrast, the martial law troops did not arrive at the National Assembly until shortly after midnight, about 1 ½ hours later.  Additionally, a total of 297 martial law troops were sent to the NEC buildings in at least 3 separate sites (the Gwacheon Government Building, the Gwanak Government Building, and the Suwon Election Training Center), which was more troops than the 280 sent to the National Assembly.

Kim Yong-bin, secretary general of the National Election Commission, testified at the Public Administration and Security Committee’s inquiry on the emergency martial law situation at the National Assembly, stating, “At 22:33, more than 10 martial law troops were deployed inside the National Election Commission building” and seized 5 mobile phones belonging to the NEC duty officers.  Kim added “Between 23:09 and 23:25, four police officers arrived and were stationed at the main gate.”

Kim Yong-bin further stated, “At 23:00, the martial law commander’s emergency martial law proclamation was issued. At 23:58, an estimated 90 police officers (arrived and) waited in a bus vehicle outside the government building,” and “From 0:34 to 01:32 on December 4, more than 100 martial law troops were deployed to the government building.”  Kim continued, “At 01:00 (December 4) the National Assembly passed a resolution demanding the lifting of martial law, and at 01:50 the martial law forces completely withdrew.”  The State Council approved the lifting of martial law at 4:30 a.m. on December 4, so the martial law forces were withdrawn soon after the National Assembly passed the resolution demanding the lifting of martial law, as President Yoon Suk-yeol stated at a press conference.

But why declare Martial Law to seize evidence?  It is due to the interwoven relationship between the NEC and the judiciary, which has the authority to approve or reject a search warrant request.  The chairman of the NEC is also the sitting Supreme Court justice at the same time.  They are touted as “independent” bodies, but in reality, there is no separation of powers, as they are connected, and subject to a conflict of interest.  This makes it hard for a lower court judge to issue a warrant against a Supreme Court Justice’s other office, in this case, the National Election Commission.  Under Martial Law, no warrant is needed.  The evidence can be used for investigations and in courts, because it was obtained legally.  Prior to the declaration of the Martial Law and up through lifting it, President Yoon, who has the authority to impose Martial Law, followed the proper rules and procedures, including convening the State Council.

Prior to this point, the South Korean Supreme Court showed no interest in addressing election fraud concerns, but rather played an impediment.  It dragged out election fraud cases, when the law requires these cases be heard within 180 days.  Of the 130 election fraud cases filed after the April  2020 election, the first examination of some of the election evidence was 413 days later (more than a year later), which was for Incheon’s Yeonsu-eul precinct.  Former National Assemblyman Min Kyung-wook (민경욱), then of the Unified Future Party, who ran for office in Incheon’s Yeonsu-eul, filed a law suit on May 7, 2020 to examine the election evidence and nullify the April 15, 2020 election results.  On June 28, 2021, the Supreme Court’s Special Part 2, headed by Chief Justice Cheon Dae-yeop (천대엽), a Moon Jae-in appointee, finally began a ballot review on June 28, 2021.  By not hearing election fraud cases within 180 days, the Supreme Court itself violated the law.

Former National Assemblyman Min Kyung-wook called for investigating election fraud

The Supreme Court validated numerous ballots that should have been thrown out, including stacks of freshly-minted ballots that showed no signs of handling.  The Supreme Court accepted the NEC’s bizarre claim that these ballots are made from “memory paper” that snaps back to its original state of stiffness, and ruled the ballots as valid.

Stacks of ballots that look freshly minted and not handled or folded

It has been a taboo to mention “election fraud.”  There had been media blackout of the term “election fraud;” no main stream media covered it, despite public’s demand for investigations.  Mentioning the term on social media led to censorship, especially under the Moon Jae-in administration.  For instance, during January to June 2022, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, reported that Facebook restricted content based on requests from South Korean government agencies, and the entity that made the most request (98% or 19,074 items) to censor was the National Election Commission.

The NEC refused a government audit regarding an early-vote controversy during the presidential election, saying, “The NEC is an independent body under the Constitution and cannot be regarded as the subject of the audit,” which is a preposterous claim.  Every government body is accountable to the citizens in a Republic that Democratically elects its governing officials, especially when they operate on the taxpayers’ money.

When the NEC officials were accused of rampant nepotism, it refused to be inspected by the Board of Audit and Inspection, claiming it is not part of the executive branch.

Rho Tae-ak, NEC Chairman and Supreme Court Justice appointed by Moon Jae-in

After North Korea hacked the NEC, which was confirmed by the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the NEC initially ignored the NIS and pretended it never received notifications.  When the NIS provided proof of contact efforts, the NEC falsely claimed that it is impossible to hack the electronic vote counting machines that the NEC uses for elections in Korea, and flatly rejected offers of consultation from the NIS and the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety.  After further public outcry, the NEC grudgingly agreed to a joint security inspection, but provided only a limited access.

From July 17 to September 22, 2023, the NEC, the NIS, and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA, 한국인터넷진흥원) formed a joint security team to conduct security checks of NEC’s systems with the participation of opposition observers recommended by the National Assembly’s negotiating group.  The NIS confirmed that it was possible to:

• Infiltrate the internal network of the National Election Commission through the Internet
• Hack the “Integrated Electoral Roll System” (통합선거인명부시스템) that manages voter registration status and voting status
• Change the contents of the electoral roll, such as marking “those who voted early as non-voters” or “those who did not vote early as people who voted,” and registering non-existent ghost voters as normal voters.
• Print unauthorized ballots such as a ballot with the same QR code as the actual early vote ballot
• Steal information on ballots, such as the stamp of the Board of Elections
• Infiltrate the NEC network since unauthorized PCs were connected to the communication equipment installed at the early voting stations

The NIS discovered more shocking facts, but did not publicize it at that time.  The (NIS) found records of election fraud by computer tampering through forensics of a portion of the NEC’s servers during the joint security inspection, which was exclusively reported by SkyeDaily on 5 December 2024.  The NIS could not investigate, because the Democratic Party of Korea single handedly passed a law taking away the NIS’s investigation authority during the Moon Jae-in administration.  The discovery was promptly reported to the Office of the President (President Yoon), but the information was apparently not passed to the prosecutor’s office.  For prosecutors to investigate, they need a search warrant to gather the evidence, but the court would likely have blocked granting the warrant due to the conflict of interest between South Korean Supreme Court and the NEC, as explained earlier.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Korea won the April 2020 and April 2024 General Elections in major landslides unheard of in Korean history, effectively gaining control of the National Assembly and its lawmaking capacity. Yet after both elections, it did not celebrate its huge victories, but remained solemn-faced and absolutely mum in response to election fraud allegations.  Since then, they passed thousands of laws, including laws criminalizing those who send leaflet ballons to North Korea and those who mention North Korean special forces’ involvement in Gwangju in May 1980, both laws suppressing freedom of speech, which is guaranteed by the constitution.

Former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn said, “The reason why opposition lawmakers are able to do whatever they want at the National Assembly despite being substandard is because they were elected through fraudulent elections,” and added that “The record of election fraud remains intact at the NEC.”

It took Martial Law to conduct search and seizure of the NEC and for the major media outlets to finally utter “election fraud.”

Online comments in response to the Martial Law troops searching the NEC:

• If this is the reason, then I support Great Suk-yeol
• The National Assembly was the bait.  Searched “the National Election Commission to obtain election fraud evidence,” right?
• I wondered why all the early votes went only to one side…I eagerly await the results
• This was the essence of the emergency situation. Have the National Assembly dogs gather at the National Assembly and search the NEC…
• Thoroughly investigate election fraud. In the general election 4 years ago, Yu Shi-min [former radical student activist and Minister under Rho Mu-hyun] correctly predicted 180 seats and this time DPK official correctly guessed 190 seats, which are suspicious.  They can’t correctly guess without election fraud.  Thoroughly investigate.
• It seems like I’m watching a movie.  During the National Assembly elections, even I thought it strange that the ratios of early votes (to election day votes) were the same and there were places where there were more ballots than voters.  Please look under every stone and uncover.
• Search warrants are not issued for the NEC because it’s a constitutional body.>impossible to investigate election fraud>Martial Law dispenses with the warrant and search/seized the NEC. Great Suk-yeol
• Why does the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) lose with the election day votes, but win only through early votes? Haha
• The NIS reported the electronic manipulation election fraud to President Yoon.  The court didn’t even issue a search warrant, claiming it is outside public security.  So there’s only martial law.
• After opening the early ballots, the Democratic Party of Korea always wins by a landslide.  After 3,000 votes behind with the election day votes, it reverses immediately after adding the early votes.  This doesn’t make sense.  How can there be such difference for the residents in the same area?? It doesn’t make sense. It sure felt like election fraud from the beginning.  I really hope they do proper investigation.
• The main stream media is handling the election fraud, ha ha. They must’ve found out something? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. When such taboo topic of election fraud is discussed by the media, there’s got to be something.
• Wow, I’m getting goose bumps…he’s so cool.  I really wondered why, why did he do it, even if he knew (that the DPK would try to impeach him).  It seems it’s election fraud 10,000%….let’s go eradicate the left.  Cheers, great Suk-yeol.
• The difference between the election day votes and the early votes were so large that it was strange.  The ratio of early votes to the election day votes were all pretty much the same.  The media knew, but didn’t report.  The silent media is all part of it.  All need to be jailed.
• Since it’s such a special Constitutional organ, only through Martial Law can it be searched/seized.
• I finally understand the president’s intention.
• Communist Democratic Party of Korea’s 190 seats are no accident.  Election fraud through early voting flipped the seats.  (Punishment for) election fraud is execution.
• Get rid of early voting and manually count the ballots. Korean-made electronic vote counting machines are really infamous abroad, and implicated in election fraud in Iraq too. The citizens must unite to eliminate early voting and change to manual counting.
• Everytime the ballots were counted, it was strange. Hope it’s uncovered. The Democratic Party of Korea was strange.
• Why does the Democratic Party of Korea win 100% of early votes?  In the capital city of Seoul.  Too suspicious.
• I knew it! He lived half his life as a specialist of search and seizure and was a prosecutor general! He wouldn’t carry out Martial Law so amateurishly.  I thought there would be something.  Deploying to the National Assembly was like a civil drill training like action!! This is an operation to catch spies, and is like the Incheon Landing!  Half of the Seoul metropolitan area (residents) have already turned absolutely against the impeachment!
• Listen carefully Democratic Party of Korea~!!~ If you conducted election fraud with the help of the Chinese Communist Party, then it’s subversion!!!!!!! It’s conducting sedition!!!!!!!!! Do you want me to repeat???????????? Hey, this means execution!!!!!!!!
• The 50 Cent Wumao trollers of ethnic Korean Chinese are swaying public opinions. (They’re portraying) the election fraud as a conspiracy theory.
• President Yoon, you’re the best.  Defense Minister, you did hard work. National heroes.
• This is like a movie. The National Assembly was a distraction and the NEC was the goal. If they found 100% election fraud evidence, then the Democratic Party of Korea would be disbanded.  On top of election fraud is likely China controlling it.

There were more than 800 comments for just one article alone, but the commonality was that they want the election fraud investigated and the truth to emerge.