Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s since-impeached president, had been planning for months to impose martial law and target political opponents, according to accounts.

South Korea's suspended president authorised the military to fire their weapons to enter parliament during his failed martial law attempt, according to a prosecutors' report.

The lawyers for a former South Korean defence minister under investigation on insurrection charges said on Thursday a short-lived martial law decree imposed earlier this month was to raise alarm on opposition parties' abuse of the democratic process.