Visits to suspects detained in connection with the 12·3 coup have surpassed 5,000 over the past two years. Notably, former President Yoon Suk Yeol, former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, and former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min accounted for 40% of all visits.
On October 14, Kim Ui-gyeom, a member of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee from the Democratic Party, revealed data obtained from the Ministry of Justice and military courts. From December 2024, when the martial law situation began, to September 2026, there were a total of 5,176 visits to 31 individuals detained on charges related to the coup.
Among them, former President Yoon had the highest number of visits at 771. He was followed by former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun with 668 visits and former Minister Lee Sang-min with 639 visits.
The top five individuals, including former Army Counterintelligence Command Chief Yeo In-hyung and former Intelligence Command Chief Noh Sang-won, accounted for a total of 2,815 visits, representing 54.4% of the total.
The average number of visits per month during their detention is also striking. Former Minister Lee had an average of 45.6 visits per month over 14 months, while former President Yoon averaged 42.8 visits over 18 months. In February of last year alone, former President Yoon had 74 visits, averaging 3.7 visits per weekday. Former Minister Kim also recorded an average of 30.4 visits over 22 months.
In comparison to the general inmate population, the disparity is even more pronounced. According to the 2026 Correctional Statistics Yearbook, the average number of visits per inmate in correctional facilities nationwide last year was 3.5 (totaling over 2.7 million visits for an average daily inmate population of 63,680). This means that many detainees facing coup charges received more than ten times the number of visits compared to general inmates.
Among the 31 detainees facing coup-related charges, only two individuals, including former Army Capital Defense Command Chief Lee Jin-woo and former Army Chief of Staff Park An-soo, had an average number of visits below the general average of 3.5.
Kim emphasized, "The visiting room should not become a private retreat for detainees facing coup charges. The right to visitation, a fundamental right, can be restricted for public welfare, order maintenance, and national security. Therefore, the same strict standards should apply to detainees facing coup charges as to general inmates."
However, the submitted data combines both general and attorney visits. Under current law, general visits for pretrial detainees are limited to once a day, while there are no restrictions on the number or duration of attorney visits.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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