South Korea’s Acting President is facing huge pressure from investigators to order the Presidential Security Service (PSS) to comply with an arrest warrant for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.
South Korea’s Police has also asked the Chief of Presidential Security Service to appear for questioning on Tuesday.
Yoon’s December 3 martial declaration stunned South Korea and led to the issuance of the first arrest warrant for a sitting President.
On Friday, the security service, along with military troops prevented prosecutors from arresting Yoon Suk Yeol in a six-hour standoff inside Yoon’s compound.
South Korean authorities failed to arrest President Yoon Suk Yeol due to a stand-off with presidential security forces inside his compound.
The authorities however evaded a crowd of protesters outside his compound.
Exasperated by Yoon’s dodging tactics, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said on Saturday that it had again asked Acting President Choi Sang-mok, the nation’s Finance Minister, to order the presidential security service to cooperate with the warrant.
The CIO is leading a joint team of investigators into Yoon’s brief declaration of martial law on December 3.
A Finance Ministry spokesperson declined to comment.
As supporters of President Yoon threw their weight behind him on Friday by gathering in the pre-dawn hours near the presidential residence, it became amply clear that they had a strategy in place.
In no time, their numbers swell into hundreds and they vowed to block any attempt to arrest President Yoon.
Officials from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), arrived at the gates of the presidential compound shortly after 7 a.m. (2200 GMT Thursday) and entered on foot.
Once inside the compound, the CIO and accompanying police faced cordons of Presidential Security Service personnel, and military troops seconded to presidential security, media reported.
The investigators secured the warrant to arrest Yoon over his brief declaration of martial law last month.
South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said the troops were under the control of the PSS.
Voicing concerns about the safety of its personnel due to obstruction, the CIO called off the effort to arrest Yoon around 1:30 p.m.
The CIO further said that it “deeply regretted” Yoon’s attitude of non-compliance.
“It was judged that it was virtually impossible to execute the arrest warrant due to the ongoing standoff,” the CIO said in a statement.
Yoon’s lawyer said in a statement on Friday that execution of an invalid arrest warrant against Yoon is unlawful, and that they would take legal action, without elaborating.
The arrest warrant, approved by a court on Tuesday after Yoon ignored multiple summons to appear for questioning, is viable until January 6.
The arrest 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.
The CIO said on Friday it would review the situation and decide on possible next steps.
