South Korea asks acting president to clear way for Yoon’s arrest

South Korean investigators on Saturday again asked the country’s acting president to clear the way for the arrest of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol after a six-hour standoff earlier this week thwarted his detainment.

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials asked acting President Choi Sang-mok, the nation’s finance minister, to order the presidential security service to comply with the warrant, which was issued over Yoon’s brief declaration of martial law last month.

Police are also asking that Park Jong-joon, the chief of the presidential security service, appear for questioning on Tuesday.

The request comes just one day after thousands of police officers and pro-Yoon protesters formed a perimeter around Yoon’s home to prevent authorities from executing the arrest warrant.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry confirmed their officials made it past a military unit guarding the residence’s grounds, but were later stopped from accessing Yoon.

Acting President Choi and other Democratic Party leaders publicly demanded that the presidential security service stand down — and warned it was acting illegally.

“We warn presidential security service chief Park Jong-joon not to further participate in a rebellion. Do not drag the upright staff of the presidential security service and other public officials into the depths of crime,” said Jo Seung-lae, a Democratic lawmaker.

Yoon’s arrest warrant was issued Tuesday after he evaded multiple requests to appear for questioning and blocked attempted searches of his Seoul office as part of the invention into his botched martial law declaration last month.

The warrant, however, is only valid for one week.

Yoon’s lawyers have blasted the warrant as invalid and claimed the anti-corruption agency lacks the legal authority to investigate rebellion charges.

They also described Friday’s attempts at arrest as illegal because police would be exceeding their legal authority should they detain Yoon.

With Post Wires