section_path: Events/Election Commission raids
section_name: Election Commission raids
paragraph_text: Election Commission raids
  
  After martial law was declared, armed troops raided the National Election Commission (NEC) headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province (10 troops), one of its training centers in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province (130 troops) and the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission in Gwanak District in southern Seoul (47 troops). NEC officials allegedly had their phones confiscated.
  
  Several operatives from the Intelligence Protection Group of the DCC with firearms and uniforms that were missing unit insignias and patches raided the server room located on the second floor of the NEC headquarters while the Special Warfare Command troops and National Police officers from Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency provided perimeter security at the building. Lieutenant General Yeo In-hyung, head of the DCC and another member of the Chungam faction who was criticized for admiring Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, was behind the raid. Commander Yeo made a call to KNP Commissioner Cho Ji-ho about the NEC headquarters raid and Cho started supplying police forces for the troops.
  
  Kim Yong-hyun stated he deployed troops to determine the need for an investigation into the NEC's alleged "election fraud" in the April 2024 National Assembly election, which was echoed by far-right YouTubers. However, these allegations by right-wing conspiracy theorists have been repeatedly debunked by authorities. Rep. Lee Jun-seok of the Reform Party, mentioned that President Yoon repeatedly talked about election fraud while Lee was meeting him in his capacity as the leader of Yoon's PPP party, accusing Yoon of "being crazy" about conspiracy theories, and alleged that Yoon was surrounded by individuals who believed in conspiracy theories.
  
  DCC martial law troops assigned to raid the NEC training center in Suwon questioned their deployment orders, and delayed their arrival by slowing their pace or pulling off at rest stops. On 9 December, Rep. Lee released a report stating that a DCC brigadier general assaulted a major for questioning deployment orders and forced him on a bus to seize the NEC servers. Rep. Lee also highlighted that some troops wasted time after arriving at the NEC, by eating ramyeon at a nearby convenience store, after judging their deployment orders to be illegal. Later the brigadier general was identified as Kim Dae-woo, a close associate of DCC Commander Yeo.
  
  On 12 December, Yoon alleged, in a national address, that the NEC's network system was vulnerable to cyberattacks and hacking, resulting in election fraud. The president accused the NEC of invoking constitutional immunity as an excuse to avoid inspection of its internal system in 2023 and claimed that the National Intelligence Service had discovered a North Korean hacking attack on the system. The NEC released a statement calling Yoon's allegation "baseless" and said Yoon's "raising suspicions of electoral fraud due to strong doubts amounts to self-denial of the electoral management system through which he was elected president". The NEC statement added that election fraud would require organized action from NEC aides, a breakdown of the security management system, and switching out identical amounts of actual voting papers, and called it "almost impossible". On 13 December, NEC Chairman Rho Tae-ak said in a National Assembly hearing that sending martial-law troops to take over the NEC was inexcusably illegal and unconstitutional. On 19 December, the NIS also confirmed, in a report to the National Assembly, that there was no evidence of election rigging.
  
  The unsealed indictment of former Minister Kim on 27 December revealed, Commander of the Intelligence Command, Moon Sang-ho and his predecessor Roh Sang-won intended for 30 troops to detain NEC staff and tie them up with ropes and put masks on their faces, to be sent to the Water Defense Command Bunker due to election fraud. Evidence was found of awls, ropes, hammers, cable ties and baseball bats belonging to the arrest team to be used when carrying out the arrests.