South Korean law enforcement officials enter presidential compound to detain impeached Yoon
SEOUL — Hundreds of law enforcement officials in South Korea entered the residential compound of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday morning in the capital, Seoul. It was their second attempt to detain him over his imposition of martial law last month.
More than a thousand anti-corruption investigators and police officers could be deployed in the operation to apprehend Yoon, who has been holed up in the residence for weeks. Wednesday morning, investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials were negotiating with the president’s attorneys.
There were no immediate reports of clashes.
The anti-corruption agency is leading a joint investigation with police and the military on whether Yoon’s brief martial law declaration on Dec. 3 amounted to an attempted rebellion and sought to bring him into custody after he ignored several summons for questioning.
Yoon has justified his martial law decree as a legitimate act of governance against what he calls an “anti-state” opposition bogging down his agenda with its legislative majority and vowed to “fight to the end” against efforts to oust him.
The Corruption Investigation Office and police pledged more forceful measures to detain Yoon after the presidential security service blocked their initial efforts Jan. 3.
The president’s conservative supporters contend that the country has been overrun by North Korea sympathizers conspiring to destroy South Korea’s freedoms.
After an hourslong standoff Wednesday at the compound’s gate, anti-corruption investigators and police officers were seen moving up the hilly compound. Police officers were earlier seen using ladders to climb over rows of buses placed by the presidential security service near the compound’s entrance.
Anti-corruption investigators and police later arrived in front of a metal gate with a gold presidential mark that’s near Yoon’s residential building. Some officers were seen entering a security door on the side of the metal gate, escorted by one of Yoon’s lawyers and his chief of staff, but it wasn’t immediately clear why they were being let in. The presidential security service later removed a bus and other vehicles that had been parked tightly inside the gate as a barricade.
Seok Dong-hyeon, a lawyer for Yoon, said attorneys at the residence were negotiating with the anti-corruption agency over the possibility the president could voluntarily appear for questioning.
The president previously evaded multiple requests to appear for questioning before the agency sought court warrants for his detention. Despite a court warrant for Yoon’s detention, the presidential security service has insisted it’s obligated to protect the impeached president and has fortified the compound with barbed wire.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had refused to resign. But a dozen lawmakers from his own party turned against him in an impeachment vote over his declaration of martial law.
As tensions escalated, South Korea’s acting leader, Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, issued a statement early Wednesday urging law enforcement and the presidential security service to ensure there are no “physical clashes.”
The liberal opposition Democratic Party, which drove a legislative campaign that led to Yoon’s impeachment on Dec. 14, issued a statement calling for the presidential security service to stand down and cooperate with Yoon’s detention. Lawmakers from Yoon’s People Power Party held a rally near the presidential residence, decrying the efforts to detain him as unlawful.
Yoon’s lawyers claimed that the detainment warrant issued by the Seoul Western District Court was invalid. They cited a law that protects locations potentially linked to military secrets from search without the consent of the person in charge — which would be Yoon. The court warrant for Yoon’s detainment is valid through Jan. 21.
Hundreds of Yoon’s supporters and critics held competing protests near the residence — one side vowing to protect him, the other calling for his imprisonment — as thousands of police officers in yellow jackets closely monitored the situation.
If investigators manage to detain Yoon, they will probably ask a court for permission to make a formal arrest. Otherwise, he will be released after 48 hours.
South Korean investigators failed to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol after an hours-long standoff with his security forces.
Yoon has not left his official residence in Seoul for weeks, and the presidential security service prevented dozens of investigators from detaining him after a nearly six-hour standoff Jan. 3.
The National Police Agency has convened multiple meetings of field commanders in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province in recent days to plan their detainment efforts, and the size of those forces fueled speculation that more than a thousand officers could be deployed in a possible multiday operation. The agency and police have openly warned that presidential bodyguards obstructing the execution of the warrant could be arrested.
Yoon’s declaration of martial law Dec. 3, during which he deployed troops around the National Assembly, lasted only hours before lawmakers managed to get through the blockade and vote to lift the measure.
Yoon’s presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him Dec. 14, accusing him of rebellion. His fate now rests with the Constitutional Court, which has begun deliberating on whether to formally remove him from office or reject the charges and reinstate him.
Kim writes for the Associated Press.
