South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol remained inside his residence for a third day on Thursday, resisting arrest, after vowing to “fight” authorities seeking to interrogate him over his failed martial law attempt.
The embattled leader issued a hung declaration in December. 3 which led to his impeachment and facing arrest, imprisonment or, in the worst case, the death penalty.
Yoon’s supporters and opponents have since camped outside his presidential residence, while members of his security team have blocked an attempted police raid in a dramatic standoff.
Yun has stepped into the fray but remains defiant as the crisis escalates, and issued a defiant message to his base days before the arrest warrant was set to expire on January 6.
“The Republic of Korea is currently under threat due to internal and external forces threatening its sovereignty and the activities of anti-state elements,” he said in a statement to protesters. His lawyer Yoon Kab-kyun confirmed to AFP. .
He said, “I swear to fight with you to the end to protect this nation.” He watched the protest by hundreds of people on a YouTube livestream on Wednesday evening.
Yun Kab-kyun confirmed to AFP that the impeached leaders remained inside the presidential compound.
“The President (official President) is at the residence,” he said.
Opposition lawmakers immediately condemned Yoon Suk Yeol’s defiant message as inflammatory, with Democratic Party spokesman Jo Seung-lee calling him “delusional” and accusing him of trying to incite clashes.
The suspended president’s legal team has filed an injunction to block the warrant and on Wednesday described the arrest order as “an illegal and invalid act.”
– Blocked Raid –
Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), warned that anyone trying to prevent authorities from arresting Yoon Suk Yeol could face prosecution.
Along with the summons, a Seoul court also issued search warrants for his official residence and other locations, a CIO official told AFP.
The official position of the Presidential Security Service has been to treat warrants with due process.
It is not clear how many guards are deployed with him but they have stopped the search of his office and residence.
He cited two articles in South Korea’s Criminal Procedure Act that prohibit seizures from places where official secrets are stored without the consent of the person in charge.
South Korean authorities have previously failed to execute similar arrest warrants for lawmakers in 2000 and 2004, because party members and supporters blocked police for the seven-day period before the warrants were valid.
However, discussions between prosecutors and police about Yoon Suk Yeol’s arrest are taking place against the backdrop of a political crisis that has briefly returned the country to the dark days of military rule.
refused questioning
The martial law order, which Yoon Suk Yeol said was aimed at eliminating “anti-state elements”, lasted only a few hours.
Armed soldiers stormed the National Assembly building, breached the fence, broke windows and descended by helicopter, but the President was forced to make a quick U-turn after MPs rushed to Parliament to reject it .
After that, Parliament stripped him of the responsibility of the presidency and he is now facing criminal charges of rebellion.
Yoon Suk Yeol has since refused subpoenas for questioning three times and has repeated claims that the opposition is in cahoots with South Korea’s communist enemies.
Following his denial, supporters have flocked to Seoul to support him, expressing anger at police and waving anti-impeachment placards.
A constitutional court will decide whether his impeachment should be upheld.
The turmoil deepened late last week when his replacement, Han Duck-soo, was also impeached by parliament for failing to sign a bill to investigate his predecessor.
Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok has been installed as acting president and has promised to make every possible effort to end the political turmoil.
He has since decided to appoint two new judges to the Constitutional Court, a key demand of the opposition, but criticized by Yoon Suk Yeol’s staff as exceeding his powers.