Former President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday offered an apology to military commanders facing trial over their participation in his failed martial law bid, while defending them for following his orders.

Yoon made the remarks as he appeared as a witness in a martial law trial against the commanders at a military court in the Yongsan District of Seoul.
 
While Yoon took the witness stand, Kwak Jong-keun, former chief of the Army Special Warfare Command; Yeo In-hyung, former head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command; and Lee Jin-woo, former head of the Capital Defense Command sat at the defense table.

Yoon said it was a pity to see the former senior military and police officials in court as they were the ones who did their job according to the decision he made, adding that he felt very sorry.

With regard to the recent reshuffle of Defense Counterintelligence Command officials, Yoon said institutions pivotal to national security should not be neutralized due to their involvement in his martial law bid.

The ousted former president also reiterated his previous claim that the December 3 emergency martial law was aimed only at exposing the then-opposition party's “unscrupulous” behavior and that he had no intention of maintaining martial law for an extended period.

Yoon said the martial law, which he thought would only last a day at the most, was imposed to raise alarm bells and make the public aware of the country’s “perilous situation.” 

He also said that aside from former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, he did not instruct any other officials to review or prepare for the martial law decree.

Yoon claimed that the opposition party's push to impeach the chief of the Board of Audit and Inspection on December 2 was what triggered him to instruct preparations for the martial law.