When about 100 criminal investigators and police officers entered a hilly area in central Seoul on Friday morning, they sought to accomplish something that had never been done before in South Korea: capture a sitting president. .
First, they broke through two blockades formed by parked vehicles and people. Later, as they approached within 650 feet of the building where President Yoon Seok-yeol was believed to be barricaded, they faced an even more formidable wall: 10 buses and cars, and 200 of President Yoon Seok-yeol's elite soldiers and bodyguards. . President Yoon's Security Department. Investigators tried to break through and serve a court-issued warrant to take Yoon away, but to no avail, and a small scuffle broke out.
Three prosecutors were allowed access to the building. But Yun's lawyer there told him the warrant could not be executed because it was issued “illegally,” according to officials who briefed media outlets on what happened at the compound.
Outnumbered, the 100 officials retreated after a five-and-a-half hour standoff.
The Office for the Investigation of Senior Corruption, the independent government agency that led the raid on the presidential palace on Friday, said in a statement that it was “deeply regrettable.” The group accused Yoon, who was impeached by Congress last month and already suspended, of refusing to comply with a court-issued warrant. “We're going to discuss what the next steps should be.”
The failure to invite a deeply unpopular president has deepened a sense of helplessness among South Koreans, a feeling of helplessness exacerbated by the country's sharply polarized politics. Facing major challenges on the domestic and international stage, the country appears rudderless and preoccupied with internal conflicts.
There is already uncertainty hanging over the U.S. alliance as the unpredictable Donald J. Trump prepares to return to the White House. North Korea, Seoul's decades-old enemy, is trying to score propaganda points from South Korea's political quagmire, with state media saying its neighbor is mired in a “spiral of national political paralysis and socio-political turmoil.” Reporting.
And domestically, Sunday's Jeju Air jet crash, which killed 179 of the 181 people on board, added to the list of challenges ranging from large-scale labor strikes to rising household debt. The Treasury Department on Thursday revised down its growth forecast for 2025 significantly.
The Constitutional Court is deliberating whether to dismiss Yoon, who was impeached by the National Assembly on December 14th. This comes after he abruptly declared martial law 11 days ago, sparking public outrage and calling for his ouster.
On Friday, the besieged Yun vowed to fight to return to power through a constitutional court trial and indicated he would not voluntarily submit to criminal investigation. Mr. Yoon faces accusations that he committed riots by sending troops into the National Assembly during the short-lived military regime.
Lim Ji-bong, a law professor at Seoul's Sogang University, said that by refusing to comply with the warrant, Yoon “continued to add to the grounds for him to be removed from office through impeachment.”
“He may think he survived today, but what he did today will not look very well to the judges and justices of the Constitutional Court who will ultimately hear his rebellion case. I guess.”
Yun is not the first South Korean politician to defy a court's arrest warrant. In 1995, prosecutors wanted to question former military dictator Chun Doo-hwan on charges of rioting and rebellion stemming from his role in the 1979 coup and the massacre of demonstrators the following year. He resisted the summons and was accompanied by a large group of supporters to his hometown in the South.
Prosecutors tracked him down there. After an overnight standoff, Chun turned himself in.
But unlike Yun, Chun was out of office when he faced sedition charges. Although Yun has been suspended, he is being protected with the full support of the Presidential Security Office. The Presidential Protection Agency is a government agency that employs a team of elite bodyguards and counterterrorism experts drawn from the police, military, and other government agencies.
“Anyone who has seen him rely on his bodyguards as a shield to protect him from legal troubles would consider him a coward,” Lim said.
Investigators have threatened to charge the president's bodyguard with obstruction of justice.
“We will do our best to provide security for our work in accordance with the law and principles,” the Presidential Security Office said in a statement.
Opinion polls show that the majority of South Koreans want Yoon to be expelled and punished for rebellion. However, the ruling party, which opposed his impeachment, condemned the attempt to detain him.
Mr. Yoon has some enthusiastic supporters, most of whom are older Koreans. Thousands of his supporters have camped out on the sidewalks for days, chanting “Let's protect Yoon Seok-yeol!”
In a message sent on New Year's Day, Yun called them “people who love freedom and democracy” and thanked them for braving the cold weather to show their support on the streets near their homes. expressed.
“We will fight together until the end to save this country,” Yoon said.
As officials withdrew from Yun's compound, they shouted, “We have won!”
Demonstrators who had called for Yoon's arrest began gathering again on Friday, marching near Yoon's residence chanting “Arrest Yoon Seok-yeol!” They, as well as opposition parties, expressed anger at the failure to capture Yun and called the presidential guard “accomplices” in the rebellion.
Lee Ye Seul, 19, a university student living in Seoul, said, “I'm very angry.'' “I will speak out until he is removed and those involved in the rebellion are punished.”
For Yun's supporters outside his official residence, the security services were his last line of defense.
Lee Yong-jin, 65, said, “Presidential guards should throw grenades if necessary to prevent people from getting close to the president.''
But Ahn Byung-jin, a political science professor at Seoul's Kyung Hee University, said Yoon's tactic of stirring up political divisions to avoid legal trouble had a negative impact on South Korea.
“South Korea's weaknesses as a democratic country have been exposed,'' he said.
