Kim Bong-sik, chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, left, and Cho Ji-ho, second from left, commissioner general of the National Police Agency, attend a parliamentary legislation committee meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, Dec. 5. Yonhap

A court on Friday issued arrest warrants for the chiefs of the national police and the Seoul police on charges of playing key roles in President Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived imposition of martial law last week.

The Seoul Central District Court issued the warrants for Cho Ji-ho, commissioner general of the National Police Agency, and Kim Bong-sik, chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, citing risk of destruction of evidence.

The arrests came days after they were placed under emergency arrest on charges of ordering police officers to enter the National Assembly to stop lawmakers from voting down Yoon's martial law decree.

Reports later surfaced that Cho and Kim met with Yoon and then Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun at a presidential safe house some three hours before the president declared martial law on Dec. 3.

Police suspect Cho and Kim may have been involved from the planning stages of the martial law order. Both have been banned from leaving the country. (Yonhap)