South Korea investigators ask acting president to clear way for Yoon’s arrest

South Korean investigators again asked the country’s acting president on Saturday to order the presidential security service to comply with an arrest warrant for 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. The investigators secured the warrant to arrest Yoon over his brief declaration of martial law last month.

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO), which is investigating the case, said on Saturday it had again asked acting President Choi Sang-mok, the nation’s finance minister, to order the presidential security service to cooperate with the warrant.

A finance ministry spokesperson declined to comment.

The police asked the chief 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 bungled martial law declaration — a political move swiftly overturned by parliament — with a separate warrant later issued for his arrest.

Yoon faces criminal charges of insurrection, one of a few crimes not subject to presidential immunity, meaning he could be sentenced to prison or, at worst, the death penalty.

If the warrant is carried out, Yoon would become the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested.

Arrest showdown

Since his impeachment, Yoon has holed up in his presidential residence in the capital Seoul, where he has refused to emerge for questioning three times.

In scenes of high drama on Friday, Yoon Suk Yeol’s presidential guards and military troops shielded the former star prosecutor from investigators, who called off their arrest attempt citing safety concerns.

“There was a standoff. While we estimated the personnel blocking us to be around 200, there could have been more,” an official from the investigation team said on Friday on condition of anonymity.

“It was a dangerous situation.”

The unprecedented showdown — which reportedly included clashes but no shots fired — left the arrest attempt by investigators in limbo with the court-ordered warrant set to expire on Monday.

Officials from the CIO, probing Yoon over his martial law decree, could make another bid to arrest him before then.

But if the warrant lapses, they may apply for another.

The Constitutional Court slated January 14 for the start of Yoon’s impeachment trial, which if he does not attend would continue in his absence.

Former presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye never appeared for their impeachment trials.

Yoon’s lawyers decried Friday’s arrest attempt as “unlawful and invalid”, and vowed to take legal action.

Two top officials from Yoon’s presidential security service also refused a police request to appear for questioning on Saturday, citing the “serious nature” of protecting him, the service said in a statement sent to AFP.

Experts said investigators could wait for greater 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,” Chae Jin-won of Humanitas College at Kyung Hee University told AFP.

‘Stable path’

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

After that, he could have been held for up to 48 hours on the existing warrant. Investigators would have needed to apply for another arrest warrant to keep him in custody.

Yoon has remained defiant and told his right-wing supporters this week he would fight “to the very end” for his political survival.

By the time investigators arrived to arrest Yoon, he had layered his presidential compound with hundreds of security forces to prevent it.

Around 20 investigators and 80 police officers were heavily outnumbered by around 200 soldiers and security personnel linking arms to block their way.

A tense six-hour standoff ensued until Friday afternoon when the investigators were forced to U-turn.

The investigators said in a statement on Friday they would ask Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, who was installed as acting president a week ago, to back the warrant. The weeks of political turmoil have threatened the country’s stability.

South Korea’s key security ally, the United States, called for 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 ties.

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.