South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol is now facing renewed and probably more robust attempt to arrest him for insurrection after a leading investigator vowed to do “whatever it take” to break a security blockade and take the impeached leader into custody.
Acting president, Choi Sang-mok had urged the authorities in Wednesday to “do their best to prevent any injuries to citizens or physical conflict between government agencies” while executing Yoon’s arrest warrant.
Protesters supporting and opposing the embattled Yoon had endured freezing temperatures to stage rallies on the streets surrounding the presidential compound on Wednesday after a court re-issued a warrant on Tuesday to arrest him.
Since this week, the Presidential Security Service (PSS) has been fortifying the compound with barbed wire and barricades, using buses to block access to the residence, located in a hillside villa in an upscale district known as Korea’s Beverly Hills.
Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his failed attempt to impose a martial law in South Korea on December 3. This sole decision prompted the South Korean authorities to issue a first-ever arrest warrant for a sitting president.
Currently, Yoon is also facing an impeachment trial in the Constitutional Court.
One of Yoon’s lawyers, Yoon Kab-keun had remarked that the president could not accept the execution of the arrest warrant because it was issued by a court in the wrong jurisdiction and the team of investigators instituted to probe the incumbent leader had no mandate to do so.
The lawyer also denied insinuations by some members of parliament that Yoon had fled the official residence, dismissing them as they were “malicious rumours” intended to slander Yoon. According to him, he met the president there on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Oh Dong-woon, the head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), and subsequently, the leader of the investigation, apologised for failing to arrest the president last week after a six-hour standoff with hundreds of PSS agents, some of whom were seen carrying firearms, and military guards at the compound.
