South Korean investigators in stand-off over Yoon arrest

SEOUL: South Korean investigators sought to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol at his residence Friday over a failed bid to impose martial law, but local media reported security forces were blocking their attempts.

Yoon, who has already been suspended from duty by lawmakers, would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested if the warrant is carried out.

The president, who issued a bungled declaration on Dec 3 that shook the vibrant East Asian democracy and briefly lurched it back to the dark days of military rule, faces imprisonment or, at worst, the death penalty.

“The execution of the arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk-yeol has begun,” said the corruption investigation office (CIO), which is probing Yoon’s declaration, with its officials and police seen entering the president’s residence.

CIO investigators, including senior prosecutor Lee Dae-hwan, were let through heavy security barricades to enter the residence to attempt to execute their warrant to detain Yoon, AFP reporters saw.

However, they were “blocked by a military unit inside” after entering, the Yonhap news agency reported.

They later “moved past” that unit to “confront security service” members inside the residence.

It had been unclear whether the presidential security service, which still protects Yoon as the country’s sitting head of state, would comply with investigators’ warrants.

Members of his security team have previously blocked attempted police raids of the presidential residence, but it was not immediately clear which units had blocked investigators Friday.

Yoon’s legal team decried the attempt to execute the arrest warrant, vowing to take further legal action against the move.

“The execution of a warrant that is illegal and invalid is indeed not lawful,” Yoon’s lawyer Yoon Kap-keun said.

Dozens of police buses and hundreds of uniformed police lined the street outside the compound in central Seoul, AFP reporters saw.

Some 2,700 police and 135 police buses have been deployed to the area to prevent clashes, Yonhap reported, after Yoon’s supporters faced off with anti-Yoon demonstrators on Thursday.

Yoon has been holed up inside the residence since a court approved the warrant to detain him earlier this week, vowing to “fight” authorities seeking to question him over his failed martial law bid.

All-night prayers

South Korean media have reported that CIO officials want to arrest Yoon and take him to their office in Gwacheon near Seoul for questioning.

After that, he can be held for up to 48 hours on the existing warrant. Investigators need to apply for another arrest warrant to keep him in custody.

After staging chaotic protests on Thursday, a handful of Yoon’s die-hard supporters, which include far-right YouTube personalities and evangelical Christian preachers, had camped outside his compound all night – some holding all-night prayer sessions.

They chanted early Friday for the arrest of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung and “illegal warrant is invalid” as police and media gathered outside the residence.

Pro-Yoon protester Rhee Kang-san told AFP many were “rooting for the president” to survive the arrest attempt.

Lee Hye-sook, a 57-year-old Yoon supporter, said protesters were trying to stop opposition figures from “attempting to transform our country into a socialist state, similar to North Korea”.

Yoon has doubled down on claims the opposition was in league with South Korea’s communist enemies.

Yoon’s lawyer confirmed to AFP on Thursday that the impeached leader remained inside the presidential compound.

Yoon’s legal team had already filed for an injunction to a constitutional court to block the warrant, calling the arrest order “an unlawful and invalid act”, and also submitted an objection to the Seoul court that ordered it.

However, the head of the CIO, Oh Dong-woon, has warned that anyone trying to block authorities from arresting Yoon could themselves face prosecution.

Along with the summons, a Seoul court issued a search warrant for his official residence and other locations, a CIO official told AFP.

South Korean officials have previously failed to execute similar arrest warrants for lawmakers – in 2000 and 2004 – due to party members and supporters blocking police for the seven days the warrants were valid.