South Korea’s Yoon detained, a first for country

 

Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials in Gwacheon, South Korea, Jan. 15, 2025.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA —

South Korean authorities detained impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol early Wednesday, the country’s anti-corruption agency announced, following a tense, five-hour standoff at his heavily guarded mountain compound in Seoul.

According to local media broadcasts, Yoon’s motorcade arrived at the anti-corruption office, where he is set to undergo questioning in an insurrection investigation related to his short-lived martial law declaration last month.

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South Korea’s Yoon detained, in first for country

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  Authorities now have 48 hours to decide whether to file for a formal arrest warrant or release Yoon, whose detention marks the first time a sitting South Korean president has been taken into police custody.

  For weeks, Yoon has been holed up at his presidential residence, which had been fortified with barbed wire fencing and a multilayer barricade of tightly packed buses and other vehicles.

  

  Police officers and investigators leave the residence of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul, Jan. 15, 2025.

  Around 1,000 police officers were mobilized for Wednesday’s detention effort, local media reported. Authorities had also warned they were prepared to use more forceful tactics than they did in their failed attempt to detain Yoon two weeks ago.

  The warnings had raised fears of violence, either between security forces or between police and protesters. For weeks, the large street outside Yoon’s compound has been filled with demonstrators — mostly supporters of the embattled conservative president, who has vowed to “fight to the end.”

  Early Wednesday, about 30 ruling party lawmakers formed a human chain outside the main entrance of Yoon’s residence to prevent his detention, according to the Yonhap news agency.

  

  Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's supporters scuffle with police officers as authorities seek to execute an arrest warrant, in Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 15, 2025.

  However, the Presidential Security Service, which during the last detention attempt formed a human barricade to protect Yoon, did not put up as much resistance this time, investigators said.

  At a briefing, South Korea’s anti-corruption agency said there were “virtually no” clashes on Wednesday.

  In a video recording that aired as he was leaving the compound, Yoon called the investigation illegal but said that he was complying to prevent bloodshed.

  Yoon was impeached last month following his declaration of martial law. He had justified his decree by citing the need to eradicate "anti-state forces" and "protect the constitutional democratic order."

  The country’s Constitutional Court must uphold the impeachment for him to be removed from office.

  Separately, Yoon faces a criminal investigation into insurrection and abuse of power. However, he has defied multiple requests to appear for questioning as part of that probe, leading authorities to seek a detention warrant.

  Yoon’s lawyers have slammed the detention effort as politically motivated. They also argue that the court that issued the detention warrant had no jurisdiction to do so, and that the anti-corruption agency leading the investigation has no mandate to investigate the president for insurrection.

   

  By：VOA

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