When round 100 felony investigators and law enforcement officials entered a hilly compound in central Seoul on Friday morning, they tried to realize one thing that has by no means been accomplished earlier than in South Korea: detain a sitting president.
First, they made it by two blockades shaped by parked automobiles and folks. Then, once they got here inside 650 toes of the constructing the place President Yoon Suk Yeol was believed to be holed up, they got here nose to nose with an much more formidable barrier: 10 buses and vehicles together with 200 elite troopers and bodyguards belonging to Mr. Yoon’s Presidential Safety Service. Small scuffles erupted because the investigators tried in useless to interrupt by and serve a court-issued warrant to take Mr. Yoon away.
Three prosecutors have been allowed to method the constructing. However there, Mr. Yoon’s legal professionals advised them that they may not serve the warrant as a result of it was “illegally” issued, in keeping with officers who briefed information media about what occurred contained in the compound.
Outnumbered, the 100 officers retreated after a five-and-a-half-hour standoff.
“It’s deeply regrettable,” the Corruption Investigation Workplace for Excessive-Rating Officers, the unbiased authorities company that led the raid into the presidential compound on Friday, mentioned in an announcement. It accused Mr. Yoon — who has already been suspended from workplace after being impeached by Parliament final month — of refusing to honor a court-issued warrant. “We’ll focus on what our subsequent step must be.”
The failure to usher in the deeply unpopular president deepened a rising sense of helplessness amongst South Koreans, exacerbated by the nation’s sharply polarized politics. The nation seems rudderless and distracted by infighting at a time when it faces main challenges at house and on the worldwide scene.
There may be already uncertainty round its alliance with america because the unpredictable Donald J. Trump prepares to return to the White Home. Seoul’s decades-old foe North Korea has sought to attain propaganda factors from the South’s political quagmire, with its state media reporting that its neighbor was in “paralysis of its state administration and spiraling sociopolitical confusion.”
And, at house, the crash of a Jeju Air passenger jet that killed 179 of the 181 individuals on board on Sunday has added to challenges that embrace widespread labor strikes and rising family money owed. On Thursday, the finance ministry sharply downgraded its development forecast for 2025.
A Constitutional Courtroom is deliberating whether or not to take away Mr. Yoon, who was impeached on Dec. 14 by the Nationwide Meeting. That got here after he abruptly declared martial legislation 11 days earlier, prompting nationwide outrage and requires his ouster.
On Friday, the besieged Mr. Yoon vowed to battle to return to workplace by the Constitutional Courtroom trial and confirmed he had no intention of voluntarily subjecting himself to felony investigations. Mr. Yoon faces accusations that he dedicated rebel by sending armed troops into the Nationwide Meeting throughout his short-lived army rule.
By refusing to honor the warrant, Mr. Yoon “stored including extra causes he must be faraway from workplace by impeachment,” mentioned Lim Ji-bong, a professor of legislation at Sogang College in Seoul.
“He might imagine he survived as we speak, however what he did as we speak wouldn’t go down very nicely with the justices on the Constitutional Courtroom and judges who would finally attempt his rebel case.”
Mr. Yoon just isn’t the primary South Korean politician who has defied court docket warrants to detain them. In 1995, prosecutors wished to query the previous army dictator Chun Doo-hwan on rebel and mutiny costs stemming from his position in a 1979 coup and a bloodbath of demonstrators the next yr. He defied the summons and headed to his southern hometown, trailed by a crowd of supporters.
The prosecutors chased him there. After an in a single day standoff, Mr. Chun surrendered himself.
However not like Mr. Yoon, Mr. Chun was out of workplace when he confronted the rebel cost. Mr. Yoon, although suspended, continues to be guarded with the total help of his Presidential Safety Service, a authorities company that hires groups of elite bodyguards and anti-terrorist consultants chosen from the police, army and different authorities companies.
“Individuals who have seen him depend on his bodyguards as a protect in opposition to his authorized bother will see him as a coward,” Mr. Lim mentioned.
The investigators warned that they might cost the presidential bodyguards with obstruction of justice.
“We’ll do all the pieces we will to supply safety for the thing of our service in keeping with legal guidelines and ideas,” the Presidential Safety Service mentioned in an announcement.
Public surveys confirmed {that a} majority of South Koreans wished Mr. Yoon ousted and punished for rebel. However his governing celebration, which opposed his impeachment, denounced makes an attempt to carry him.
Mr. Yoon additionally has die-hard supporters — largely amongst largely older South Koreans. Hundreds of his supporters have been camped out for days on the pavement, chanting, “Let’s defend Yoon Suk Yeol!”
In a message delivered on New 12 months’s Day, Mr. Yoon known as them “residents who love freedom and democracy” and thanked them for braving the chilly climate to indicate their help out on the road close to his house.
“I’ll battle with you to the tip to avoid wasting this nation,” Mr. Yoon mentioned.
When the officers withdrew from Mr. Yoon’s compound, they shouted: “We have now gained!”
Protesters who’ve been clamoring for Mr. Yoon’s arrest started gathering once more on Friday, marching close to Mr. Yoon’s residence and shouting “Arrest Yoon Suk Yeol!” They, in addition to the nation’s opposition events, expressed fury over the failure to detain Mr. Yoon, calling his presidential safety service “accomplices” in an rebel.
“I’m so offended,” mentioned Lee Ye-seul, 19, a college scholar in Seoul. “I’ll communicate out till he’s eliminated and the individuals concerned within the rebel are punished.”
To Mr. Yoon’s supporters exterior his residence, the safety service was the final line of protection to avoid wasting Mr. Yoon.
“The presidential guard ought to throw grenades if essential to cease them from coming close to the president,” mentioned Lee Younger-jin, 65.
However Mr. Yoon’s tactic of stoking political divides to keep away from his authorized bother mirrored poorly on South Korea, mentioned Ahn Byong-jin, a professor of political science at Kyung Hee College in Seoul.
It “uncovered weaknesses in South Korea as a democracy,” he mentioned.
