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

President Yoon appeared at the Constitutional Court on Thursday for the sixth hearing of his impeachment trial, where more key witnesses turned up to testify, and they had some conflicting memories of the martial law order.

Our Oh Soo-young starts us off.

There were strong clashes on Thursday over whether President Yoon Suk Yeol had ordered soldiers to pull out members of parliament to stop them overturning martial law on December 3rd.

This came at Yoon's sixth impeachment trial hearing, where former Army Special Warfare Commander Kwak Jong-geun stood witness by the request of the National Assembly.

Kwak firmly maintained his position that the President, in a phone call, ordered him to drag out lawmakers, or , from the National Assembly, not 'agents,' or '' as claimed by Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.

"At the time, the 707th Special Mission forces were in a stand-off and weren't inside the main building. Since I received the call in that context, I naturally assumed he was referring to National Assembly members and understood it that way."

Then, with questions fired over his choice of words, he admitted the President told him to pull out the numbers or "in-won" , not legislators or "ui-won" inside the National Assembly.

To this President Yoon himself spoke out.

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Yoon also refuted the former commander's 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 to revoke martial law.

He accused Kwak of conspiring to impeach him, with First Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service Hong Jang-won, who also testified unfavorably for Yoon.

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

He said Commander Kwak Jong-geun did say the number of people should not exceed 150 – and added that Kwak 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.

Presidential Secretary for Economic Affairs Park Chun-seop also testified, suggesting that Yoon's martial law was motivated by the opposition-led parliament's impeachment of various state officials, unilateral legislation, and slashing of the government budget.

As the testimonies continue, the National Assembly's impeachment panel accused Yoon of inconsistency.

"He's abandoned his stance that he wanted to eradicate anti-state forces through martial law and is now solely focused on finding statements that are advantageous to him."

"With many conflicting statements to cross-check and verify, it's still unclear how the court will manage the pace of the proceedings and whether it will choose to hear from more witnesses, as there are just two hearings left until next Thursday."

Court Officer Cheon Jae-hyun said Wednesday scheduling additional hearings is "at the court's discretion," and there's no official position yet.

But she noted that trial dates can be postponed depending on circumstances.

The Court has approved a total of 16 witnesses requested by Yoon and the National Assembly, rejecting most of the more than 30 witnesses Yoon's team applied for.

The next trial hearing takes place on Tuesday.

Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.