Live: Clashes over whether Pres. Yoon ordered "agents" or "lawmakers" to be removed from Parliament

We start yet again at the Constitutional Court where the sixth hearing began earlier today with President Yoon Suk Yeol in attendance as a new lineup of witnesses were grilled into the events surrounding the evening of December third.

For more our Oh Soo-young joins us live.

Soo-young it's good to have you on.

So the court session today opened in the morning?

That's right. There were strong clashes over the key question today which was: whether President Yoon had ordered the physical removal of lawmakers from Parliament with Yoon himself making a counterargument.

Strong clashes came as former Army Special Warfare Command chief Kwak Jong-geun delivered his testimony, at the request of the National Assembly's impeachment panel.

His previous statement clashes with the claims of President Yoon and former Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun that the military was ordered to remove "agents" rather than "lawmakers" from the National Assembly.

Kwak said, in his phone call with Yoon, because there were no troops inside the main Assembly building at the time, he understood the President told him to remove legislators.

Then, during the testimony, he admitted he had heard the president tell him to pull out the numbers or "in-won" , not legislators or "ui-won" inside the National Assembly.

He repeated his previous claim that the President and the Defense Minister did not want the number of legislators in the Assembly to reach 150 the number of votes needed to pass a motion including to revoke martial law.

To this President Yoon himself spoke out, saying he had not even used the term "numbers" when there are words such as "people" or "agents" to refer to troops.

He stated if he'd asked for 151 plus legislators to be removed, there would have been a back-and-forth between him and commanders on the ground to discuss the feasibility.

Kim Hyun-tae, commander of the 707th Special Mission Battalion, who led the break-in at the National Assembly, also testified.

He said Commander Kwak Jong-geun did say the number of people should not exceed 150 – but noted he seemed to be relaying instructions from a higher authority, rather than issuing a command.

Kim said he did not receive any orders to remove or restrict the movement of legislators in the National Assembly, but to lock down the building as ordered.

He added he and his troops were deployed in uniform straight from standard training.

Both Kwak and Kim said they'd been ordered to lock down the National Assembly and decided that the situation would be impossible.

Senior Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs Park Chun-seop also began his testimony, with questions focusing on the opposition-led parliament slashing the government's budget, which Yoon claims led to a state of national emergency, justifying his martial law.

Meanwhile Soo-young the hearings are set to end next Thursday.

Are we looking at a possible extension of these hearings or will next Thursday be the final session?

It looks likely that the Court will have to schedule more hearing dates beyond next Thursday.

The Court announced on Thursday, it selected an additional witness to testify:

Cho Sung-hyun, Commander of the 1st Security Group under the Capital Defence Command.

The decision comes after Capital Defense Commander Lee Jin-woo, a key witness in Tuesday's hearing, refused to answer crucial questions to verify the orders that were given, including by President Yoon Suk Yeol on the evening of December 3rd.

According to prosecutors' findings, included in Yoon's indictment, Cho relayed orders by Lee Jin-woo to forcibly remove lawmakers from the National Assembly, and ordered troops to assist the Special Warfare Command in clearing a passage to drag lawmakers out.

His testimony is scheduled for next Thursday at 5 PM.

If the justices add more hearing dates, it's likely the verdict of the trial would come around March, considering that it took 10 days for former President Park Geun-hye's ruling to be issued.

The Court has been determined to expedite proceedings, Yoon's lawyers have been calling to slow down the pace of the twice-a-week hearings to once a week given that Yoon's criminal trial will begin in two week's time.

All right Soo-young thank you for the latest on the impeachment trial.

That was our Oh Soo-young reporting live from the Constitutional Court.