Criminal investigative authorities with a court-issued warrant issued a long-awaited second move early Wednesday to take impeached President Yoon Seok-yeol into custody for questioning related to riot charges stemming from last month's brief imposition of martial law. The next operation has begun.
Police buses began converging before dawn outside the hilltop presidential palace where Yoon has been barricaded since he was impeached by the National Assembly and suspended from office on December 14. Yun was the first South Korean leader to take control of his country. The country has been under military rule since democratization began in the late 1980s.
Investigators and police gathered at the main gate of Yoon's residence around dawn Wednesday. Carrying ladders, the group climbed over a bus barricade blocking the road and arrived at the entrance to Yoon's residence, where they conferred with the president's security guards and lawyers.
At around 8:30 a.m., Yun's press secretary, attorney Seok Dong-hyun, posted on Facebook that the president had not yet been arrested and that his legal team was negotiating with investigators regarding the possibility of Yun's voluntary arrest. He posted that he was doing so. Present yourself for questioning.
Investigators are bracing for a repeat of the standoff that occurred when they first visited Yoon's residence on January 3 to submit a detention warrant. They were then outnumbered by presidential security personnel and had to survive an embarrassing retreat after a stalemate that lasted five and a half hours.
Investigators have since regrouped and said they will bring more officers with them the next time they go to the home. Police officials announced plans to deploy 1,000 police officers, including specialized units targeting drug cartels and organized crime groups, and vowed to arrest anyone who gets in their way.
On Wednesday morning, Yun's lawyers, members of his own party and officials from the Presidential Security Office stood outside the gates of the compound, ready to resist another attempt by Yun and his supporters to arrest him. It looked like it was. In the morning, the streets leading to his property were marked by tense standoffs in sub-zero temperatures, at one point including shoving and physical fighting.
Since the first attempt to detain Mr. Yoon, his guards have fortified the compound by deploying more buses and razor wire to block off gates and walls. Yun vowed to “fight to the end'' to remain in office and said he would not comply with court warrants that he deemed illegal.
South Korea's acting president and vice prime minister, Choi Sang-mok, warned government agencies involved in the confrontation against the violence.
“All our people and the international community are watching this,” he said in a statement. “Physical violence for any purpose cannot be tolerated, as it irreparably damages public trust and international reputation.”
Yoon's detention marks the first time in South Korean history that authorities have attempted to detain a sitting president. The ongoing events shook the country, with news and social media channels providing live streaming coverage. If neither side backs down, violent conflict could ensue.
The previous day, the Constitutional Court began hearing whether to dismiss Yoon, who did not appear for the hearing. His lawyers said they feared investigators would detain him if he left the presidential palace.
In a final attempt to execute the warrant, a number of members of the Presidential Security Service, the government agency tasked with protecting the president and his family, and the Office of High-Level Corruption Investigations, which sought to detain the president with the cooperation of the government, CIO). police. They sent 200 bodyguards and soldiers to stop 100 CIO officials and police officers.
It is unclear how many personnel the presidential security team will be able to mobilize to thwart another attempt to detain Yoon.
Military troops are guarding the area around the presidential palace. However, after the initial standoff, the Ministry of Defense informed the Presidential Security Service that it could no longer use soldiers to prevent the execution of warrants because it was not its mission.
