South Korea's presidential guards and military troops prevented authorities from arresting impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol today in a tense six-hour stand-off inside Yoon's compound in the heart of Seoul.
Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his Dec. 3 martial law bid that stunned South Korea and led to the first arrest warrant to be issued for a sitting president.
"It was judged that it was virtually impossible to execute the arrest warrant due to the ongoing standoff," the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said in a statement.
Photo: Bloomberg
CIO officials and police evaded hundreds of Yoon supporters who gathered in the pre-dawn hours near his residence today, vowing to block the arrest "with our lives."
Some chanted "President Yoon Suk Yeol will be protected by the people," and called for the head of the CIO to be arrested.
Officials from the CIO, which is leading a joint team of investigators into possible insurrection charges related to Yoon's brief declaration of martial law, arrived at the gates of the presidential compound shortly after 7am and entered on foot.
Once inside the compound, the CIO and police were outnumbered by cordons of Presidential Security Service (PSS) personnel, as well as military troops seconded to presidential security, a CIO official told reporters.
As many as 200 formed a human chain to block the CIO and police, the official added.
South Korea's Ministry of National Defense said the troops were under the control of the PSS.
The CIO called off the effort to arrest Yoon around 1:30pm due to concerns over the safety of its personnel due to obstruction, and said it "deeply regretted" Yoon's attitude of non-compliance.
His arrest warrant, approved by a court on Tuesday after Yoon ignored multiple summons to appear for questioning, is viable until Jan. 6.
Yoon has been isolated since he was impeached and suspended from power on Dec. 14.
In a statement after the arrest effort was suspended, Yoon's legal team said the CIO had no authority to investigate insurrection and it was regrettable that it had tried to "forcibly execute an illegal and invalid arrest and search warrant" in a sensitive security area.
The statement warned police against supporting the arrest effort.
The interim head of Yoon's People Power Party welcomed the suspension and said the investigation must be carried out without detaining Yoon.
The current warrant gives investigators only 48 hours to hold Yoon after he is arrested. Investigators must then decide whether to request a detention warrant or release him.
Yoon sent shockwaves through Asia's fourth-largest economy and one of the region's most vibrant democracies with his late-night announcement on Dec. 3 that he was imposing martial law to overcome political deadlock and root out "anti-state forces".
Within hours, however, 190 lawmakers had defied the cordons of troops and police to vote against Yoon's order. About six hours after his initial decree, Yoon rescinded it.
He later issued a defiant defense of his decision, saying domestic political opponents are sympathetic to North Korea and citing uncorroborated claims of election tampering.
Two South Korean military officials, including army chief Park An-su who was named martial law commander during the short-lived declaration, have been indicted after being detained by prosecutors investigating insurrection charges, Yonhap reported today.
Kim Yong-hyun, who resigned as Yoon's defense minister after playing a major role in the martial law decree, has been detained and was indicted last week on charges of insurrection and abuse of power.
Separate from the criminal investigation, his impeachment case is currently before the Constitutional Court to decide whether to reinstate or permanently remove him. A second hearing in that case is scheduled for later today.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS