South Korean president sits silently through 10 hours of questioning
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Yoon Suk Yeol ‘simply refused to speak’. South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol sat silently through several hours of interrogation after his dramatic arrest on Wednesday. Mr Yoon, 64, the country’s first sitting president to be arrested, was detained to answer insurrection charges for briefly imposing martial law on 3 December.
![[Yoon Suk Yeol sits in a car as he heads to a detention centre on 15 January 2025]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/16/02/South_Korea_Martial_Law_89184.jpg)
He, however, refused to cooperate with investigators and cited health reasons for not attending further questioning, local media reported on Thursday. Investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office were expected to resume his questioning at 2pm local time but Mr Yoon’s lawyer said he could not attend.
“President Yoon is not well and fully explained his position yesterday so there is nothing more to be interrogated about,” Yoon Kab Keun told the state news agencyYonhap. A large force of police and investigators breached Mr Yoon’s heavily guarded compound on Wednesday, bypassing bus barricades, cutting through barbed wire and scaling ladders to gain entry and arrest him.
A previous attempt to arrest him had been abandoned after police and investigators were prevented from entering the compound by the president’s security and supporters. As the Constitutional Court considers the impeached president’s removal from office, potentially prompting a fresh election, the country is deeply divided with Mr Yoon’s opponents rejoicing and his supporters staging fervent protests.
According to The Chosun Daily, Mr Yoon’s interrogation centred on the circumstances of the martial law declaration, the drafting and announcement of a public address, and the deployment of military and police to the National Assembly and other locations in the country on 3 December.
