S. Korean President Yoon arrested after deadlock over martial law decree: NPR

SEOUL, South Korea — Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been detained for questioning on insurrection charges, a month and a half after briefly imposing martial law.

He is the country’s first sitting president to be arrested.

With his arrest, investigators have turned the page on weeks of anxiety over possible clashes between presidential security services and police following the issuance of the arrest warrant for Yoon.

But the political chaos caused by the declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 is expected to continue, as Yoon and his ruling party supporters remain defiant against accusations of insurrection.

Yoon argued that the declaration of martial law was necessary because the opposition’s “legislative dictatorship” was paralyzing state affairs and disrupting social order.

In a video message released after his arrest, the president called the investigation and arrest warrant “illegal” and said he had agreed to work with law enforcement only to prevent a violent confrontation.

The first attempt to arrest Yoon by the Corruption Investigation Bureau (CIO) and the police on January 3 ended in failure after a five-hour standoff with the government’s security services. president. IOC Attorney General Oh Dong-woon later told the parliamentary judiciary committee that his staff did not expect “organized resistance” from armed security officers and that he felt “a psychological and physical pressure.

The IOC, which is conducting a joint investigation into Yoon with the police and military, has stepped up its preparations ahead of the second attempt, mobilizing 3,000 riot police, 1,000 detectives and anti-corruption investigators as part of their operation carried out before dawn. He also warned security guards that they too could be arrested for obstructing public functions and, if found guilty, lose their jobs and pensions.

After dispersing dozens of ruling party lawmakers who were blocking the gate to the presidential residence, police and investigators used ladders to scale buses parked behind the gate as barricades.

Some police officers attempted to enter from the rear of the residence using a mountain hiking trail.

Unlike the first attempt, no presidential security agents were seen trying to stop law enforcement.

After more than two hours of negotiations inside the presidential residence between Yoon’s representatives and law enforcement, a presidential convoy left the compound.

Protesters gathered in front of the presidential palace

When the IOC confirmed Yoon’s detention, cheers erupted among protesters calling for his arrest in the freezing cold.

“I haven’t lived long, but this is the happiest time of my life,” said Choi Haysu, a 20-year-old student from the southeastern city of Busan. Choi says she arrived in the neighborhood the day before and spent the night on the street.

When Yoon declared martial law last month, Choi said she sought to stage a protest the next day, comparing it to clashes between democracy activists and militant police in the 1980s. “If the National Assembly does not had failed to stop the martial law troops,” she says, “I feared the kind of violent repression I saw in the history books would occur.”

Young South Koreans born after the country’s military dictatorships have actively participated in recent protests demanding Yoon’s departure. Many say they took the stability of South Korea’s democracy for granted before martial law was declared.

“Most people live in constant anxiety, checking every morning if Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested overnight or if some other situation happened,” said Min So Won, 24, who protested outside the residence on Wednesday. presidential.

In a recent Gallup poll75% of South Koreans surveyed aged 18 to 29 said they supported Yoon’s impeachment. The National Assembly passed the impeachment motion on December 14, and the Constitutional Court began formal hearings this week to decide whether or not to formally remove him from office.

Older South Koreans, however, are more sympathetic to Yoon. In the same poll, 36% of people aged 70 or older support impeachment.

Jeong Hyung-mok, a 76-year-old retired teacher, took part in the anti-impeachment protest on Wednesday which also took place in front of the presidential residence. She says she fears the South Korean government will collapse if Yoon is removed.

“The president is the pillar that supports our country and the vanguard of liberal democracy,” Jeong said, calling the liberal opposition leader a “communist.”

Speaking to reporters outside the residence, Lawmaker Kim Gi-hyeon of the ruling People’s Power Party also asserted that the country’s liberal democracy and rule of law were at stake, repeating the assertions of Yoon on the illegality of the investigation.

But the courts rejected objections raised by Yoon’s lawyers and supporters to the arrest warrant.

The IOC can detain the president for questioning for 48 hours. The agency would then have to request an arrest warrant, which would give the office and prosecutors up to 20 days to question him.