South Korean officers make second try to arrest impeached President Yoon

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean authorities started a second try on Wednesday to detain President Yoon Suk Yeol over his botched declaration of martial regulation, weeks after a primary try resulted in a dramatic standoff on the residence the place Yoon has been holed up since being impeached.

Investigators arriving earlier than daybreak at Yoon’s presidential residence in central Seoul have been met by members of his safety service, who blocked them from detaining Yoon throughout their first try on Jan. 3.

Legal professionals for Yoon and lawmakers from his Individuals Energy Occasion have been additionally on the entry highway resulting in the residence, arguing that the warrant was unlawful and blocking the police from progressing towards the residence’s entrance.

Close by, hundreds of Yoon’s supporters and critics held separate protests in below-freezing temperatures.

Law enforcement officials might be seen making progress towards the hillside villa after pushing by a number of blockades made up of automobiles and barbed wire.

Yoon is needed for questioning in connection together with his short-lived declaration of martial regulation final month, which has plunged the important thing U.S. ally into political instability. He faces doable expenses of riot, one of many few crimes for which South Korean presidents don’t have immunity.

If the warrant have been efficiently carried out, Yoon would change into South Korea’s first president to be arrested whereas in workplace.

The second arrest try comes a day after South Korea’s Constitutional Court docket started a trial to find out whether or not to uphold Yoon’s Dec. 14 impeachment by lawmakers.

Yoon, 64, didn’t attend the primary day of proceedings on Tuesday, citing safety issues. The listening to ended after about 4 minutes. A second listening to is about for Thursday.

Presidential bodyguards have defied orders to face down and confronted off with regulation enforcement for nearly six hours throughout the first arrest try, saying they have been required by regulation to guard the president. They have been backed by hundreds of Yoon’s conservative supporters, many carrying American flags and placards with slogans impressed by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, resembling “Cease the Steal.”

Investigators have since regrouped, vowing to take stronger measures if obligatory, and the warrant was re-issued final week after expiring.

The nation’s appearing chief, Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, had raised issues about doable clashes between authorities and the presidential bodyguards.

“This second is a vital one for sustaining order and the rule of regulation within the Republic of Korea,” he mentioned Wednesday, utilizing South Korea’s formal identify. “All the nation and the worldwide group are carefully watching this example.”

The Corruption Investigation Workplace for Excessive-Rating Officers, which is main a joint investigation, had mentioned that about 1,000 law enforcement officials can be deployed this time to help with the warrant’s execution. Authorities additionally warned that anybody who tried to impede them might face arrest themselves.

The primary opposition Democratic Occasion known as on Yoon’s safety workforce and PPP lawmakers to cooperate with the warrant’s execution.

“There is no such thing as a place left to run,” chief spokesperson Cho Seung-rae mentioned Wednesday. 

Yoon’s attorneys have warned that dragging him out of his residence in handcuffs might spark a “civil struggle” in a rustic deeply divided alongside ideological and generational traces.

They are saying the warrant is invalid for jurisdictional causes and that the regulation doesn’t enable the search of areas that would include army secrets and techniques, such because the presidential compound, with out consent.

If Yoon is efficiently detained for questioning, he will be held for as much as 48 hours. Investigators would then want to use for an additional warrant with a view to formally indict and proceed to carry him.

Yoon, who took workplace in 2022 for a single five-year time period, has struggled to advance his legislative agenda towards the opposition-controlled parliament.

In a shock late-night handle on Dec. 3, he accused “anti-state forces” of paralyzing the federal government and sympathizing with communist North Korea and declared emergency martial regulation, which included a ban on all political exercise.

He lifted the order about six hours later after lawmakers voted unanimously to reject it.

Although Yoon has apologized for the martial regulation declaration, he has repeatedly defied summonses to look for questioning within the legal investigation, saying it was inside his energy as president to challenge the order, South Korea’s first since 1980.

The episode has deeply shaken South Korea, which has a lengthy historical past of military-authoritarian rule however has since transitioned into certainly one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies and the world’s Tenth-largest economic system.

Stella Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea, Max Burman reported from London and Jennifer Jett reported from Hong Kong.