Soldiers block police as S Korea enters uncharted territory
SEOUL : South Korea’s presidential guards and military troops prevented authorities from arresting impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday in a tense six-hour stand-off inside Yoon’s compound in the heart of Seoul.
Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his Dec. 3 martial law bid that stunned South Korea and led to the first arrest warrant to be issued for a sitting president.
“It was judged that it was virtually impossible to execute the arrest warrant due to the ongoing standoff,” the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said in a statement.
CIO officials and police evaded hundreds of Yoon supporters who gathered in pre-dawn hours near his residence on Friday, vowing to block the arrest “with our lives“.
Officials from the CIO, which is leading a joint team of investigators, arrived at the gates of the presidential compound shortly after 7 a.m. and entered on foot.
Once inside the compound, the CIO and police were outnumbered by cordons of Presidential Security Service (PSS) personnel, as well as troops seconded to presidential security, a CIO official told reporters.
More than 200 PSS agents and soldiers blocked the CIO officers and police, he added. While there were altercations and PSS agents appeared to be carrying firearms, no weapons were drawn, he said.
Yoon, who has been isolated since he was impeached and suspended from power on Dec. 14, was not seen during the standoff, he said.
South Korea’s defence ministry said the troops were under the control of the PSS.
