SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a fresh and potentially more forceful attempt at his arrest on insurrection charges after a senior investigator pledged to exert all efforts to breach a security cordon and apprehend the impeached leader.
Both supporters and opponents of the embattled Yoon continued to brave the harsh cold to hold demonstrations on the streets near the presidential residence on Wednesday following the re-issuance of an arrest warrant for Yoon by a court a day earlier.
The Presidential Security Service (PSS) was observed this week reinforcing the compound with barbed wire and barriers, using buses to impede access to the hillside villa where Yoon is reportedly situated, having defied summonses for questioning.
Yoon is under investigation for insurrection stemming from his martial law declaration on Dec. 3, a move that shocked South Korea and resulted in the first-ever arrest warrant issued against a sitting president. Additionally, he is embroiled in a Constitutional Court trial for his impeachment on Dec. 14 for breaching his constitutional obligations with the late-night martial law decree.
Oh Dong-woon, the chief of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) leading the probe against Yoon, expressed regret on Tuesday for a failed arrest bid the previous Friday following a tense six-hour standoff within the presidential compound. Oh terminated the operation after encountering resistance from a human chain formed by hundreds of PSS members and military personnel preventing entry into the compound.
“We are committed to diligently preparing this time with strong resolve, aiming for the successful execution of the second arrest warrant,” Oh informed a parliamentary committee. The duration of the new arrest warrant remained unspecified.
Although Oh did not oppose calls from lawmakers for decisive measures to overcome the presidential guards and military personnel inside the compound, he refrained from disclosing the specific strategies under consideration. Potential scenarios reported in local media entail deploying police tactical units and heavy machinery to breach the barriers, followed by a force of over 2,000 police officers to remove the presidential guards, a process that could extend up to three days if required to wear down the security forces.
During the previous arrest attempt, the CIO and police found themselves outnumbered by over 200 PSS personnel, some armed, and troops assigned to presidential security, leading to confrontations as both sides clashed, according to a CIO official.
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies and Michael Perry)
