South Korea investigators call off arrest of President Yoon

SEOUL (AFP ) : South Korean investigators called off their attempt to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol at his residence Friday over a failed martial law bid, citing safety concerns after a standoff with his security team.

Yoon, who has already been suspended from duty by lawmakers, would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested if the warrant is carried out.

The president, who issued a bungled declaration on December 3 that shook the vibrant East Asian democracy and briefly lurched it back to the dark days of military rule, faces imprisonment or, at worst, the death penalty.

“Regarding the execution of the arrest warrant today, it was determined that the execution was effectively impossible due to the ongoing standoff,” the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), which is probing Yoon over his martial law decree, said in a statement.

“Concern for the safety of personnel on-site led to the decision to halt” the arrest attempt, the statement said of the confrontation with Yoon’s presidential security service and its military unit.

The deadline for the warrant is Monday, leaving it in limbo with just a few days remaining and Yoon defiant, vowing earlier this week to “fight” authorities seeking to question him.

CIO investigators including senior prosecutor Lee Dae-hwan were earlier let through heavy security barricades to enter the residence to attempt to execute their warrant to detain Yoon.

But soldiers under the Presidential Security Service at one point engaged in a “confrontation with the CIO at the presidential residence,” an official with Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP.

Before the execution of the court-approved warrant was called off, Yoon’s security detail told AFP they had been “in negotiation” with the CIO investigators who sought to access the president.

Yoon’s security service — which still protects Yoon as the country’s sitting head of state — has previously blocked attempted police raids of the presidential office.

The president himself has ignored three rounds of summons from investigators, prompting them to seek the warrant.

Yoon’s legal team — who raced to the residence and AFP saw allowed inside — decried the attempt to execute the arrest warrant, vowing to take further legal action against the move.

“The execution of a warrant that is illegal and invalid is indeed not lawful,” Yoon’s lawyer Yoon Kap-keun said.

On Friday, prosecutors also indicted two top military officials including one who was briefly named martial law commander during last month’s fiasco, on charges of insurrection, Yonhap reported. Both were already in detention.

Dozens of police buses and hundreds of uniformed police lined the street outside the compound in central Seoul, AFP reporters saw.

About 2,700 police and 135 police buses were deployed to the area to prevent clashes, Yonhap reported, after Yoon’s supporters faced off with anti-Yoon demonstrators Thursday.

– All-night prayers –

South Korean media reported that CIO officials 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 need to apply for another arrest warrant to keep him in custody.

After staging chaotic protests Thursday, a handful of Yoon’s die-hard supporters, which include far-right YouTube personalities and evangelical Christian preachers, had camped outside his compound in the bitter cold — some holding all-night prayer sessions.

They called early Friday for the arrest of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung and chanted “Illegal warrant is invalid” as police and media gathered outside the residence.

Pro-Yoon protester Rhee Kang-san told AFP many were “rooting for the president” to survive the arrest attempt.

Lee Hye-sook, a 57-year-old Yoon supporter, said protesters were trying to stop opposition figures from “attempting to transform our country into a socialist state, similar to North Korea”.

Yoon has doubled down on claims the opposition was in league with South Korea’s communist enemies.

Yoon’s legal team had already moved to try and block the arrest warrant at the constitutional court, calling it “unlawful”.

But the head of the CIO, Oh Dong-woon, has warned that anyone trying to block authorities from arresting Yoon could themselves face prosecution.

South Korean officials have previously failed to execute similar arrest warrants for lawmakers — in 2000 and 2004 — due to party members and supporters blocking police for the seven days the warrants were valid.

Yoon also faces a separate Constitutional Court hearing which will confirm or reject his impeachment by parliament.

In rare comments about the South’s politics, North Korean state media on Friday said Seoul was in “political chaos” over attempts to arrest Yoon.