South Korea’s impeached president has denied that he ordered the military to drag lawmakers out of the National Assembly to prevent them from voting to reject his martial law decree last month, as he appeared for the first time before the Constitutional Court that will determine his fate.

A former South Korean defence minister charged with insurrection for his role in a short-lived martial law attempt told a court on Thursday that he wanted a broader military deployment but was overruled by President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The so-called Choongampa faction, a group with origins in the private school in Seoul where imprisoned South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol studied in the 1970s, appears to be a key element in the plot behind his recently foiled decision to declare martial law.