Police ‘en route to arrest’ South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol
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Yoon, whose supporters are denying access to his home, is under investigation for attempting to impose martial law. Authorities were en route to carry out an arrest warrant for the impeached South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, the Yonhap news agency reported early on Friday, as protesters faced off with police outside his residence and vowed to block any attempt.
Yoon is under criminal investigation for his short-lived martial law attempt on 3 December. An arrest would be unprecedented for an incumbent South Korean president. Yonhap reported that officials from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials – which is leading a joint team of investigators that include the police and prosecutors – had left their headquarters to execute the warrant.
The broadcaster YTN reported that approximately 2,800 police had been mobilised in preparation for executing the warrant. It was unclear exactly how police would make the arrest and whether the presidential security service, which has blocked access by investigators with a search warrant to Yoon’s office and official residence, would try to stop it.
About 100 protesters were gathered near his residence in the pre-dawn hours, after local media reports suggested investigating authorities would soon try to execute an arrest warrant that was approved on Tuesday after Yoon refused summons to appear. “We have to block them with our lives,” one was heard saying to others. About a dozen protesters tried to block a group of police officers at the entrance to a pedestrian overpass.
