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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's security chief said on Friday, January 10, 2025, the impeached leader, who faces arrest over a criminal probe into his December 3 martial law bid, has been unfairly treated for a sitting leader and warned bloodshed must be avoided.
Park Chong-jun, head of the Presidential Security Service (PSS), is himself under investigation for obstructing official duty related to a six-hour standoff last week between PSS agents and investigators trying to execute an arrest warrant for Yoon.
Arriving at police headquarters for questioning, Park, who is a former senior police official, said the current attempt to arrest a sitting president is wrong and Yoon deserved treatment "becoming of" the country's status.
"I believe there should not be any physical clash or bloodshed under any circumstances," Park told reporters, adding acting President Choi Sang-mok has not responded to his request for safety assurances for officials involved.
Hundreds of PSS agents blockaded the presidential compound and thwarted investigators from trying to arrest Yoon last Friday. The investigators were pulled back because of the risk of a clash.
Officials of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading the investigation, have said PSS agents were carrying firearms during the standoff although no weapons were drawn.
The investigators obtained a new arrest warrant this week after Yoon defied repeated summons to appear for questioning.
On Thursday, lawyers for Yoon said the arrest warrant was illegal and invalid.
Yoon Suk Yeol is under a separate Constitutional Court trial reviewing parliament's impeachment of him on Dec. 14 to decide whether to remove him from office permanently or reinstate him.
Yoon to accept Constitutional Court’s verdict
Yoon Suk Yeol will accept the decision of the Constitutional Court that is trying parliament's impeachment case against him, even if it decides to remove the suspended leader from office, his lawyer said on Thursday, January 9.
"So if the decision is 'removal', it cannot but be accepted," Yoon's lawyer, Yoon Kab-keun, told a news conference.
Rulings by the court, one of the two highest courts in the country along with the Supreme Court, cannot be appealed.
Yoon has earlier ignored the Constitutional Court's requests to submit legal briefs before the court began its hearing on Dec. 27, but his lawyers have said he was willing to appear in person to argue his case.
The suspended president has defied repeated summons in a separate criminal investigation into allegations he masterminded insurrection with his Dec. 3 martial law bid, which led to the first arrest warrant issued for a sitting president.
Yoon Suk Yeol's lawyer said the president was currently at his official residence in Seoul and appeared healthy.
Presidential security guards resisted an initial effort to arrest Yoon last week, though he faces another attempt after a top investigator vowed to do whatever it takes to break a security blockade and take in Yoon.
Seok Dong-hyeon, another lawyer advising Yoon, said Yoon viewed the attempts to arrest him as politically motivated and aimed at humiliating him by publicly displaying him in handcuffs. He cited media reports that the police planned to deploy armored vehicles and helicopters to drop special police units into the presidential compounds in a push to arrest Yoon.
Seok said Yoon and his advisers view the unfolding situation as a war of ideology between those committed to free democracy and those who are against it.
"If something goes wrong, what we're saying is that it could become civil war," said Seok.
Yoon has said he declared martial law to clear out "anti-state" forces that were paralyzing government functions and threatening democracy.
On Tuesday, the head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading the investigation, apologized for failing to arrest Yoon after a standoff with hundreds of Presidential Security Service (PSS) agents, some carrying firearms, and military guards.
Oh did not object when members of parliament called for tough action to overpower Yoon's security, but he declined to discuss what options were being considered.
Lawyer Yoon has said the South Korean president's arrest warrant was illegal as it was issued by a court in the wrong jurisdiction and the CIO had no mandate to investigate a sitting president for insurrection. Instead, the prosecutors should indict Yoon if there was evidence or request a formal detention warrant, and then Yoon Suk Yeol would cooperate.
REUTERS
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