South Korean investigators on Saturday again asked the country’s acting president to order the presidential security service to serve an arrest warrant against impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The security service, along with military troops, on Friday prevented prosecutors from arresting Yoon Suk Yeol in a six-hour standoff inside Yoon’s compound. Investigators obtained the arrest warrant for Yoon for his brief declaration of martial law last month.
The Corruption Investigation Office for Senior Officials (CIO), which is investigating the case, said on Saturday that it had again asked acting President Choi Sang-mok, the country’s finance minister, to order the presidential security service to cooperate with the order.
A Finance Ministry spokesman declined to comment.
Police asked the head of the presidential security service, Park Chong-jun, to appear for questioning on Tuesday. Yonhap News reported.
The South Korean president was impeached and suspended last month after the failed declaration of martial law, a political measure quickly revoked by parliament, and a separate warrant was subsequently issued for his arrest.
Yoon faces criminal charges for insurrection, one of the few crimes not subject to presidential immunity, meaning he could be sentenced to prison or, in the worst case, the death penalty.
If the order is carried out, Yoon would become the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested.
arrest showdown
Since his dismissal, Yoon has taken refuge in his presidential residence in the capital, Seoul, where he has refused to leave for questioning on three occasions.
In scenes of high drama on Friday, presidential guards and Yoon Suk Yeol’s military troops protected the former star prosecutor from investigators, who called off his arrest attempt citing security concerns.
“There was a confrontation. While we estimate the personnel who blocked us to be around 200, there could be more,” an official from the investigation team said on Friday on condition of anonymity.
“It was a dangerous situation.”
The unprecedented standoff, which reportedly included confrontations but no shooting, left investigators’ attempted arrest in limbo and the warrant is set to expire Monday.
CIO officials, who are investigating Yoon over his martial law decree, could make another attempt to arrest him before then.
But if the order expires, they can request another one.
The Constitutional Court set January 14 for the start of the impeachment trial against Yoon, which if he does not attend would continue in his absence.
Former presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye never appeared at their impeachment trials.
Yoon’s lawyers denounced Friday’s attempted arrest as “illegal and invalid” and vowed to take legal action.
Two senior officials from Yoon’s presidential security service also rejected a police request to appear for questioning on Saturday, citing the “gravity” of protecting him, the service said in a statement sent to AFP.
Experts said investigators could wait for further legal justification before attempting to arrest the suspended president again.
“It may be challenging to carry out the arrest until the Constitutional Court rules on the impeachment motion and strips him of the presidential title,” said Chae Jin-won of Kyung Hee University’s Humanitas College. AFP.
‘Stable path’
South Korean media reported that CIO officials wanted to arrest Yoon and take him to their office in Gwacheon, near Seoul, for questioning.
After that, he could have been detained for up to 48 hours under the existing order. Investigators would have had to request another arrest warrant to keep him in custody.
Yoon has remained defiant, telling his right-wing supporters this week that he would fight “to the end” for his political survival.
When investigators arrived to arrest Yoon, he had already surrounded his presidential compound with hundreds of security forces to prevent them.
Some 20 investigators and 80 police officers were vastly outnumbered by some 200 soldiers and security personnel who joined arms to block their path.
A tense six-hour standoff ensued until Friday afternoon, when investigators were forced to turn around.
Investigators said in a statement Friday that they would ask Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, who took over as acting president a week ago, to endorse the order. Weeks of political turmoil have threatened the country’s stability.
South Korea’s main security ally, the United States, called on the political elite to work towards a “stable path” forward.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Friday reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to maintaining bilateral relations.
Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to hold talks in Seoul on Monday, with one eye on US-South Korea relations and another on nuclear-armed North Korea.
