South Korea police on way to arrest president Yoon Suk Yeol – latest updates
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South Korean authorities are near Yoon’s residence to carry out an arrest warrant for the impeached president, YTN is reporting. A recent profile on Yoon Suk Yeol, whose decision to declare martial law late on 3 December plunged Asia’s fourth-biggest economy into its worst political crisis for decades and caused concern in Washington.
Yoon was forced to lift the order just six hours later after MPs forced their way into parliament to vote it down. Yonhap reported that officials from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading a joint team of investigators that include the police and prosecutors, had left their headquarters to execute the warrant against Yoon.
Broadcaster YTN reported that about 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 in the early hours near his residence, amid local media reports that investigating authorities would soon try to execute an arrest warrant that was approved on Tuesday after Yoon refused summons to appear. About a dozen protesters tried to block a group of police officers at the entrance to a pedestrian overpass, Reuters reported.
