When round 100 legal investigators and law enforcement officials entered a hilly compound in central Seoul on Friday morning, they tried to attain one thing that has by no means been finished earlier than in South Korea: detain a sitting president.
First, they made it by way of two blockades fashioned by parked autos 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 head to head with an much more formidable barrier: 10 buses and automobiles 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 way of 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 might not serve the warrant as a result of it was “illegally” issued, in line 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 impartial 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 are going to talk about what our subsequent step needs to be.”
The failure to herald 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’s 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 as record of challenges that vary from widespread labor strikes to rising family money owed. On Thursday, the finance ministry sharply downgraded its development forecast for 2025.
A Constitutional Court docket 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 way of the Constitutional Court docket trial and confirmed he had no intention of voluntarily subjecting himself to legal investigations. Mr. Yoon faces accusations that he dedicated revolt 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 needs to be faraway from workplace by way of impeachment,” mentioned Lim Ji-bong, a professor of legislation at Sogang College in Seoul.
“He might imagine he survived at this time, however what he did at this time wouldn’t go down very effectively with the justices on the Constitutional Court docket and judges who would finally attempt his revolt case.”
Mr. Yoon just isn’t the primary South Korean politician who has defied court docket warrants to detain them. In 1995, prosecutors needed to query the previous army dictator Chun Doo-hwan on revolt 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 revolt cost. Mr. Yoon, although suspended, continues to be guarded with the complete 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 defend towards 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 are going to do all the pieces we will to offer safety for the article of our service in line with legal guidelines and ideas,” the Presidential Safety Service mentioned in an announcement.
Public surveys confirmed {that a} majority of South Koreans needed Mr. Yoon ousted and punished for revolt. However his governing get together, which opposed his impeachment, denounced makes an attempt to carry him.
Mr. Yoon additionally has die-hard supporters — principally amongst principally older South Koreans. Hundreds of his supporters have been camped out for days on the pavement, chanting, “Let’s shield Yoon Suk Yeol!”
In a message delivered on New Yr’s Day, Mr. Yoon referred to 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 save lots of this nation,” Mr. Yoon mentioned.
When the officers withdrew from Mr. Yoon’s compound, they shouted: “We now have received!”
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 revolt.
“I’m so indignant,” mentioned Lee Ye-seul, 19, a college pupil in Seoul. “I’ll converse out till he’s eliminated and the individuals concerned within the revolt are punished.”
To Mr. Yoon’s supporters exterior his residence, the safety service was the final line of protection to save lots of 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.
