Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was arrested yesterday over his failed martial law bid, ending a weeks-long standoff with authorities and becoming the first president to be detained in the nation’s history.
Yoon, who faces charges of insurrection over his short-lived effort to impose martial law last month, said he would comply with investigators to avoid “bloodshed.”
A former prosecutor who led the conservative People Power Party (PPP) to election victory in 2022, Yoon could face the death penalty or life in jail if found guilty of insurrection.
Photo: Bloomberg
He had sought to evade arrest for weeks by remaining in his residential compound, protected by members of the Presidential Security Service who had remained loyal to him.
His guards had installed barbed wire and barricades at the residence, turning it into what the opposition called a “fortress.”
Yoon, who had vowed to “fight to the end,” managed to thwart a first arrest attempt on Jan. 3 following a tense hours-long impasse between the guards and anti-graft investigators working with police.
However, before dawn yesterday, hundreds of police officers and investigators from the South Korean Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) again surrounded the residence, some scaling perimeter walls and hiking up back trails to reach the main building.
After a standoff of about five hours, authorities announced Yoon had been arrested and the impeached leader released a pre-recorded video message.
“I decided to respond to the Corruption Investigation Office,” Yoon said in the message, adding that he did not accept the legality of the investigation, but was complying “to prevent any unfortunate bloodshed.”
Yoon left his residence in a convoy and was taken to the offices of the CIO.
Investigators began questioning Yoon shortly after his arrest, but they said he had exercised “his right to remain silent.”
He refused to be filmed during questioning, a CIO official told reporters, adding that Yoon would spend the night at a detention center.
In a later Facebook post that Yoon said he wrote while holed up in his residence, he repeated election fraud claims and spoke of “hostile” nations attacking the country, alluding to North Korea.
Yoon shocked the nation late on Dec. 3 last year when he declared martial law, claiming he needed to safeguard South Korea “from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and eliminate anti-state elements.”
He deployed troops to parliament, but lawmakers defied them and voted against martial law. Yoon revoked martial law after just six hours. Yoon can be held for up to 48 hours following yesterday’s arrest. Investigators would need to apply for another arrest warrant to keep him in custody.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS