The South Korean police have ended efforts to apprehend the suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol after a six-hour standoff with security forces.
The 150 officers involved found themselves out-grossed – initially by the crowd of pro-Yoon supporters who gathered around the president’s residence before dawn and then by human chains of security personnel inside the compound.
Police were attempting to execute an arrest warrant that was issued on Wednesday after Yoon failed to show up for three summonses were issued to him to appear for interrogations.
Currently, the politician is in charge of a probe into allegations of corrupt practices and fomenting rebellion when he sought to declare martial law in early December.
Dozens of police vans lined the street outside Yoon’s residence in central Seoul early on Friday morning, before the arrest team – made up of police officers and members of the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) – began moving towards the building at about 08:00 local time (23:00 GMT).
The operation began with a team of 20 employees; however, it expanded to about 150 employees. Still they were out numbered.
Of the group, about fifty percent was able to enter the building only to be locked in for hours in a stand-off with presidential security officers still protecting Yoon despite removing his authority and a military unit charged with protecting Seoul.
The security team of Yoon once had a ‘scuffle’ with the investigating officers, according to an official of Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff speaking to the Afghan news agency AFP.
‘It turns out that the arrest is next to impossible,’ the CIO, which has been probing Yoon’s brief martial law proclamation last month, said.
Had they been successful, Yoon would then be the first sitting president to be arrested in South Korea’s history.
This is regrettable,” the CIO said about Yoon’s refusal of the legal process , adding that the next course of action will be determined after a management review.
When the court decided that it was suspending the look list account, Yoon’s supporters who have been stationed in front of the president’s residence for several days cheered in song and dance. “We won!” they chanted. Some had placards with ‘Stop the Steal’ inscribed on them – a reference to how Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6 after he lost the 2020 Presidential election.
CIO stated that this was among the reasons why they failed to make the attempted arrest due to the safety of the team on the ground.
The presidential security service has threatened to deport the CIO and the police for trespassing as they explained that the team had agressively attacked some of their employees.
What’s next?
This is not surprising bearing in mind that Yoon has defied authorities throughout the investigation process.
Several commentators have opined that since Yoon has been a chief prosecutor, he knows all the legal jokers that can be played in his defence.
Police have up to Monday 6 January to apprehend him before the warrant runs out.
This means they may attempt to arrest Yoon again over the weekend but this might be a little complicated since there will be more people to come out.
They can also seek a new warrant and Attempt to arrest him in the future again and again.
Before the attempt was stood down, Yoon’s security team informed the news agency that they were in a negotiation with the investigators that wanted to get closer to the president.
Korean police have reported the chief of the presidential security service chief and his deputy to the prosecution for criminal charges and called them in for questioning Yoon has learnt from Yonhap.
Yoon’s legal team was also also spotted arriving the residence just past local noon time.
His lawyer Yoon Gab-keun stated earlier that they would sue the arrest warrant claiming that investigators had no right to detain him.
Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, for his part, said Yoon failed to honor his word to assume legal and political liability for the failed martial law plan.
“It was a complete lie,” Park said and encouraged the CIO to try to arrest Yoon again today.
Established four years ago, the CIO was established following outrage over former president Park Geun-hye and her extravagances. She was impeached by parliament in December 2016, and removed from office three months later.
The breadth of the CIO’s authority, though, has been questioned by other agencies – and its inability to address Yoon could be viewed as a humiliation.
Weeks of chaos
Since the attempt at martial law on December 3, South Korea has been experiencing continuous political instability with serious divisions emerging within the parliament between the group that supports Yoon and that one which is intent on impeaching him.
Days and nights of protest resulted in the opposition – dominated parliament voting to impeach Yoon on 14 December, the second time after the majority of his ruling party members boycotted the first vote.
Two weeks later, parliament approved impeachment of his successor, acting president Han Duck-soo – the first acting president to be impeached since the country’s democracy.
Han was expected to shepherd the nation out of political crisis but the opposition MPs claimed that he was rejecting demands to finish Yoon’s impeachment procedure.
On Friday, prosecutors also indicted on insurrection charges army chief Park An-su, who was named martial law commander during the brief declaration, and special forces commander Kwak Jong-geun, said Seoul-based Yonhap news agency.
They are to stand trial while in prison.