South Korea investigators ask police to arrest impeached president
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Request comes after corruption investigators’ failure to detain Yoon Suk Yeol and US allies express ‘serious concerns’. South Korea’s investigating authorities have requested an extension of a warrant to arrest the country’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol.
The corruption investigation office for high-ranking officials (CIO) made the application at Seoul western district court on Monday. On Friday the CIO had failed again to serve an arrest warrant on Yoon over his declaration of martial law on 3 December 2024 after presidential security service guards formed a human chain to prevent access to him.
The arrest warrant, the first for a sitting president, was due to expire at midnight on Monday (1500 GMT). Yoon is under criminal investigation for possible insurrection over his brief, six-hour martial law declaration, which plunged one of Asia’s strongest democracies into uncharted territory.
Yoon’s actions drew a rare rebuke from officials in Washington, including the US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s deputy, Kurt Campbell, who has said it was “badly misjudged”. Speaking after his meeting with the South Korean foreign minister, Cho Tae-yul, Blinken said Washington had expressed “serious concerns” to Seoul over some of the actions Yoon took over the course of his martial law declaration.
