As per reliable news agencies, South Korean authorities have arrested impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol in their second attempt to detain him. Yoon was holed up for weeks while being investigated on insurrection charges after an attempt to impose martial law in December-2024. A court had granted an extension to a previous warrant, following a failed arrest attempt earlier this month.
Investigators had to use ladders to enter his residence compound after clashes broke out when his guards blocked the main gate.
The main road in front of Yoon’s residence was completely blocked off with police bus barricades early in the morning hours. Visuals from the spot showed a series of black SUVs leaving the presidential compound amid police escorts.
In a video message, Yoon said the “rule of law has completely collapsed” in South Korea. Though he also said that he was complying with the detention warrant to prevent clashes between law enforcement officials and the presidential security service.
Kim Sung-Hoon, the acting Chief of the Presidential Security Service, was also arrested for blocking their initial attempt to arrest Yoon Suk Yeol.
South Korea Martial Law: South Korea’s constitution gives the president the power to use the military to keep order in wartime, war-like situations or other comparable national emergency states.
Martial law powers can include suspending civil rights such as freedom of the press and assembly and temporarily limiting the powers of the courts and government agencies.
The impeachment motion against Yoon alleges that he imposed martial law far beyond his legitimate powers and in a situation that did not meet the constitutional standard of a severe crisis.
The constitution also doesn’t allow a president to use the military to suspend parliament. The motion argues that suspending political party activities and deploying troops to seal the National Assembly amounted to rebellion.
The First Sitting President to be Arrested
With this arrest, South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol has become the country’s first sitting President to be arrested, ending a weeks-long standoff between investigators and his personal security.
Yoon, whose failed attempt to impose martial law plunged the country into turmoil and saw him impeached by parliament, is being investigated on charges of insurrection. He is, however, still technically the president as a constitutional court has to decide whether his impeachment is valid.
Investigators had used ladders and wire-cutters in the freezing cold to get to Yoon, whose Presidential Security Service (PSS) personnel had erected barricades in a bid to thwart his arrest.
The 64-year-old leader has consistently maintained that the warrant for his arrest is not legally valid. Yoon said he witnessed how authorities “invaded” his home’s security perimeter with fire equipment. More than 1,000 officers were part of this operation. The CIO which is investigating Yoon had previously attempted to arrest him on 3 January.
As per a source, born on 18 December 1960, Yoon is a South Korean politician and former prosecutor who has served as the 13th and current president of South Korea since 2022. Yoon was born in Seoul and earned two degrees from Seoul National University. In his capacity as chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office, he played a key role in convicting former Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak of abuse of power.
In 2019, then-president Moon Jae-in appointed Yoon as prosecutor general of South Korea from 2019 to 2021. During Yoon’s leadership, the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office conducted embattled investigations into Cho Kuk, an influential figure in the Moon administration, that led to Cho’s resignation as minister of justice. Yoon’s clashes with the Moon administration prior to his resignation as prosecutor general in March 2021 led to his rise as a potential Presidential candidate among conservative voters.
In June 2021, Yoon announced his candidacy in the 2022 South Korean presidential election. He joined the right-wing People Power Party (PPP) in July and won its nomination in November.
Considered a conservative and economically liberal politician, Yoon ran on a platform promising economic deregulation and measures such as abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. He narrowly defeated Democratic Party nominee Lee Jae-myung by less than a percentage point on 9 March 2022.
Yoon assumed office as president on 10 May, becoming the first elected president to be born after the end to fighting in the Korean War. During his presidency, Yoon’s foreign policy has been described as both more hawkish toward North Korea and friendlier to Japan compared to previous South Korean Presidents.
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