Prosecutors in South Korea have accused a Presidential bodyguard of asking ChatGPT about “martial law,” “declaration of martial law,” and “dissolution of the National Assembly” on December 3, 2024. According to the courts, Lee Kwang-woo—head bodyguard of South Korea’s Presidential Security Service—asked the chatbot these questions two hours before President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, suggesting that Lee had an idea of what Yoon was up to.
South Korea’s Presidential Security Service (PSS) has been at the center of controversy and legal trouble since Yoon’s brief attempt to impose martial law at the end of last year. Yoon’s “self-coup” only lasted about six hours but the consequences lasted months. Yoon has been impeached, arrested and released, and is waiting to see if the courts will remove him from office.
Getting Yoon into the courtroom had been difficult. The PSS is similar to America’s Secret Service, but more akin to the Roman Praetorian Guard. It was once one of the most powerful agencies in the country and is loyal to the office of the president. After the martial law declaration, Yoon retreated to a compound in central Seoul. The PSS set up a cordon of 200 troops and 10 buses that rebuffed attempts by prosecutors to arrest Yoon.
Lee, as well as being a ChatGPT-enjoyer, is the head of the PSS’s bodyguard division. The second time prosecutors attempted to arrest Yoon in January, he suggested that the PSS could dissuade them with gunfire. Lee complied. According to the South China Morning Post, Lee told his team to arm themselves with MP7s. “If the secondary gate is breached, run out with the submachine guns,” he allegedly told them. But no bullets were fired and prosecutors served the warrant and arrested Yoon.
Lee and others in the PSS have been tied up in the impeachment proceedings. Lee was facing obstruction of justice charges related to his protection of the President and the possible deletion of digital records related to the case. And it’s in these records that investigators allegedly found him asking ChatGPT some weird questions on December 3, 2024.
According to the South Korean daily newspaper The Hankyoreh, Lee asked the AI what would happen if Yoon declared martial law and he did it at 8:30 p.m., two hours before Yoon announced his plan. Lee’s lawyer said that prosecutors had screwed up the digital forensics. He didn’t deny that Lee had asked the AI about martial law, just that it happened after Yoon had declared it.
If Lee conducted the ChatGPT search before the declaration it would mean he knew his boss’s plans. As the various trials around the night of December 3 proceed, it’s important for prosecutors and the public to learn who knew what and when. Did Lee collude with Yoon or did he just react to his boss’s plot? His interactions with ChatGPT might hold the answer.
The Hankyoreh also reported today that the court dismissed some of the obstruction charges against Lee and other members of the PSS.
