Park Chae-yeon, 53, a supporter of the impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, holds up a banner that reads 'STOP THE STEAL' at a rally near Yoon's official residence as he faces potential arrest after a court on Tuesday approved a warrant for his arrest, in Seoul, South Korea, January 3, 2025.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Seoul, South Korea: Officials in South Korea abandoned an attempt to take President Yoon Suk Yeol in for questioning over insurrection charges Friday after a standoff inside the president’s residence that lasted several hours.
“We determined that it has become impossible to serve the warrant because of the prolonged standoff” with the president’s personal security team, the investigators said in a brief statement, calling Yoon’s refusal to comply “deeply regrettable.” They said they would decide later on whether or when to try again to detain him.
The attempt was the latest effort by officials to hold Yoon accountable for his short-lived declaration of martial law last month that plunged the country into a political crisis.
Officials began withdrawing from Yoon’s residence at 1:30 pm local time after entering the compound in the morning. To get inside, they cleared away crowds of supporters attempting to block their path, and then appeared to be in a standoff inside the residence with the president’s personal security team as the high-stakes drama unfolded.
Yoon, who was impeached by parliament last month, has ignored repeated summonses from the investigators to appear for questioning, saying it was within his powers as president to place his country under military rule for the first time in 45 years. Thousands of his supporters have camped near his residence in recent days, vowing to block officials from detaining him. Large numbers of police officers were deployed around the neighborhood to maintain order.
Lawyers for Yoon repeated their assertion Friday that the attempt to detain him was illegal. “The execution of an illegal and invalid warrant is clearly unlawful,” they said in a statement.
As the motorcade carrying the officials with the detention warrant approached Yoon’s residence Friday morning, supporters who had camped out overnight on a nearby pavement erupted in anger. They waved flags and chanted: “Today is the day! We will prevail! Let’s protect Yoon Suk Yeol.”
But police held them off with barricades, preventing the protesters from trying to stop the officials from reaching Yoon’s residence in a hilly neighborhood in central Seoul.
The officials were allowed to move past the white steel gate into the compound of Yoon’s residence shortly after 8 a.m..
The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials — an independent government agency specializing in crimes involving senior leaders — obtained a court warrant Tuesday to detain him.