Seoul, Jan 24 (EFE).- The so-called Choongampa faction, a group with origins in the private school in Seoul where imprisoned South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol studied in the 1970s, appears to be a key element in the plot behind his recently foiled decision to declare martial law.
Yoon’s success in gradually placing men who, like him, studied at Choongam High School (Choongampa can be translated as “Choongam Group”) in key government and military positions had already raised alarm among the opposition months before the Dec. 3 event.
South Koreans drew a parallel between this group and Hanahoe, a secret club of graduates of the Korean Military Academy from the southeast of the country co-founded by dictator Chun Doo-hwan.
It was instrumental in successfully carrying out a coup in December 1979 during the period of martial law decreed after the assassination of his predecessor Park Chun-hee.
Although Choongampa is not officially a “dongchanghoe” (alumni congregation), “old boys” cliques – a concept originated in the UK and popular in East Asia – have the ability to become important networks of favours among the elites.
This is the case in South Korea, where ties forged in the candor of childhood or youth are valued, and where the school where one studies is a determining factor for prosperity, along with lineage and place of origin.
Choongampa includes Lee Sang-min, who graduated four years after Yoon and has been his interior minister since he came to power in May 2022.
But Yeo In-hyung, head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command since November 2023, and Park Jong-seon, who since April has been head of the Defense Security Agency, a military intelligence unit similar to the American National Security Agency, seem to have more weight.
And above all, Kim Yong-hyun, considered a figure very close to Yoon (he graduated from Choongam a year before him), is the key piece alongside the president.
A career military man who rose to the rank of three-star general, Yoon appointed him after his inauguration to lead the Presidential Security Service, the robust apparatus that is responsible for protecting the head of state in South Korea.
When Kim nominated him as defense minister in September 2024, opposition lawmaker Park Sun-won said in a parliamentary hearing that several key military posts were now occupied by men, all Choongam alumni, with direct connections to Yoon.
Park openly said they could all play a decisive role in imposing martial law, a scenario that the opposition had been denouncing for months on of military appointments and the president’s growing unpopularity in the polls.
In the audit, Kim called his arguments “false propaganda,” but as soon as he became minister, he began to hold repeated meetings at his official residence.
They involved Yeo, head of military counterintelligence, and two other figures who, despite not studying at Choongam, are considered of a faction that Kim himself had put together during his years in the military.
They are Lee Jin-woo, head of the Capital Defense Command, and Kwak Jong-keun, head of the Special Forces Command, who were directly ordered by Yoon and Kim to remove the lawmakers from Parliament on Dec. 3 so that they would not revoke the state of emergency. They are also currently under arrest. EFE
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