South Korean investigators have halted attempts to detain the country’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, after they were unable to issued over his failed martial law bid.
Authorities entered Yoon’s home on Friday, but said that a “sustained standoff” with the presidential security service had made it impossible to apprehend him, according to Yonhap news agency.
The suspended president is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his bungled martial law declaration on 3 December. The move led to his impeachment and has left him facing arrest, imprisonment, or, at worst, the death penalty.
The saga marks the first time authorities have sought to arrest a sitting South Korean leader.
Officials from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading a team of police and prosecutors investigating Yoon, entered his compound shortly after 7am local time.
Once inside, the CIO and accompanying police were blocked by Presidential Security Service (PSS) personnel and military troops, according to local media. South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said the troops were under the control of the PSS.
The CIO called off the arrest attempt at around 1:30 pm local, saying it had become “virtually impossible to execute” the warrant.
In a statement, Yoon’s lawyer described the warrant as invalid and said that Yoon would take legal action against it – while offering no further details.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been impeached and suspended from office. Source: AAP, AP / South Korean Presidential Office
Some 2,700 police and 135 police buses were deployed to the area around Yoon’s home to prevent clashes, Yonhap reported, after the president’s supporters faced off with demonstrators.
Yoon has been holed up inside the residence since a court approved the warrant to detain him earlier this week, vowing to “fight” authorities seeking to question him over his failed martial law attempt. Officials must arrest Yoon before the current warrant expires on 6 January – if not, they will have to apply for a new warrant.
Protesters gathered in the pre-dawn hours near his residence on Friday, amid local media reports that investigating authorities would soon try to execute the warrant that was approved on Tuesday after Yoon refused summons to appear for questioning.
Supporters of Yoon Suk Yeol gathered outside his residence in protest, waving South Korean and in some cases American flags. Source: AFP, Getty / Phili Fong
How did we get here?
Yoon plunged democratic South Korea into political chaos on 3 December with a declaration of martial law that politicians quickly voted down, prompting an embarrassing U-turn just hours later.
He was over the debacle and is being investigated on charges of insurrection — which is not covered by presidential immunity.
The suspended leader has been defiant, sending his hardline supporters a message claiming the country was “in danger” and vowing to fight alongside them “to the very end” — raising fears of a dangerous stalemate.
In that letter, Yoon thanked his far-right supporters for “protecting the constitutional order of liberal democracy”.
Police officers drag away supporters of Yoon Suk Yeol near the presidential residence in Seoul. Source: AAP, AP / Ahn Young-joon
The message “smacks of despair”, said Vladimir Tikhonov, Korean Studies professor at the University of Oslo.
“More than 60 per cent of South Koreans want the impeachment to be approved by the Constitutional Court, and this figure includes a significant number of moderate conservatives,” he told Agence France-Presse.
Yoon is now appealing to the far right to protect him from legitimate court orders, Tikhonov said, warning it could lead to violence.
Will Yoon be arrested?
Yoon’s guards have previously blocked investigators from executing search warrants, and Yoon has refused summons for questioning three times.
The key question, experts say, is whether the PPS will eventually comply with the warrant or continue to resist.
A barricade of police buses has been set up near Yoon Suk Yeol’s official residence. Source: AAP, EPA / Yonhap
Non-compliance would be considered an “obstruction of official duties” that would put the security team at risk of arrest themselves, Kim Hae-won, a constitutional law professor at Pusan National University Law School, told AFP.
Even so, one expert put Yoon’s chance of arrest at around 50 per cent, warning that his security team and supporters might trigger a violent clash that would, in turn, cause a major public backlash.
“The risk of violent conflict is troubling, especially in light of the recent Jeju Air tragedy, which has already caused so much sorrow to the Korean people,” Chae Jin-won of Humanitas College at Kyung Hee University told AFP, referring to .
Others, such as political commentator Park Sang-byung, argued that, legally and procedurally, Yoon’s arrest was “inevitable”.
Yoon cannot evade the CIO forever, Park told AFP, no matter how much he tries.
Anti-Yoon protesters in South Korea demonstrating during a march against the impeached president. Source: AAP, SIPA USA / SHLEE/Lee Young Ho
What happens next?
CIO officials want to arrest Yoon and take him to their office in Gwacheon near Seoul for questioning.
After that, he can be held for up to 48 hours on the existing warrant.
Yoon’s legal team has filed for an injunction to a constitutional court to block the warrant, calling the arrest order “an unlawful and invalid act”, and also submitted an objection to the Seoul court that ordered it.
Police have been deployed to the area to prevent clashes. Source: Getty / Chung Sung-Jun
But the head of the CIO, Oh Dong-woon, has warned that anyone trying to block authorities from arresting Yoon could themselves face prosecution.
Yoon also faces a separate Constitutional Court hearing on his impeachment — which, if the court decides to uphold it, would strip him of his office entirely.
“The president is likely to assert his innocence when the Constitutional Court’s ruling is announced, which will negatively impact international credibility and heighten economic uncertainty,” Humanitas College’s Chae said.
South Korea is the world’s 10th-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse, but the growing political crisis means its reputation “will likely suffer”, he added.
Its constitutional court will hear the first arguments in Yoon’s impeachment trial on 14 January, with a second session planned for two days later, in case the president refuses to appear.
