At the moment, there is no one to arrest Yoon Suk-yeol, the ousted president of South Korea. The political farce of martial law continues in the Asian country. The Office of Investigation of Corruption of Senior Officials (OICAF), one of the organizations that has opened proceedings against the president for his attempt to impose military control of the country, this Monday was rushing the last hours of an arrest warrant issued against him, which has not yet been able to be executed since it came into force last week. OICAF investigators tried to arrest the leader on Friday, but were forced to abort the operation after the presidential security service, made up of soldiers and officials, prevented them from entering the official premises: nearly 200 guards formed a wall human that blocked the entrance, confirming the clash between agencies and powers of the State.
Throughout this Monday, a new arrest attempt was expected, which has not happened. The aforementioned anti-corruption agency had even requested help from the police to carry it out, but they have resisted providing it due to legal doubts surrounding the measure, as revealed by the South Korean Yonhap agency. Finally, the OICAF has chosen to request the time limit, with the request for an extension to carry out the arrest in the coming days, the aforementioned agency has announced.
Yoon, provisionally dismissed after a parliamentary vote on December 14, is accused of insurrection for trying to impose martial law on December 3. While the Constitutional Court takes its time to assess whether to definitively reject or validate his dismissal as head of state, the conservative leader remains cloistered in the official residence, surrounded in recent days by a crowd of supporters who defy the freezing temperatures of the Asian country.
The suspended president’s legal team considers the order issued against him illegal, believing that the OICAF is not a competent body to investigate the charges of which he is accused. The aforementioned office, on the contrary, maintains that Yoon did not respond to its repeated requests to appear for questioning and that it has sufficient reasons to issue the order.
This Monday, the leader’s defense filed complaints with the Prosecutor’s Office against the head of this state anti-corruption agency and 10 other people for the attempt to execute the order to arrest Yoon and search his residence. The legal team has argued, among other things, that OICAF did not have the authority to mobilize police officers to carry out the arrest. He has also filed complaints against the acting Commissioner General of the National Police Agency, Lee Ho-young, and the acting Defense Minister, Kim Seon-ho, accusing them of dereliction of duty and abuse of power for rejecting the service’s request. of presidential security to have a security reinforcement.
Complex legal battle
The technical details and legal tricks of the case promise a very complex legal battle in all instances. Although arrest warrants are usually executed quickly, the stakes are now high. This is the first time in the democratic history of South Korea that the authorities intend to arrest a president who until a few weeks ago was in office. A team of police investigators was already stopped on December 11, when they tried to access the presidential complex in Seoul to search several rooms, including the head of state’s office, the Cabinet meeting room, the Presidential Security Service and the Joint Chiefs of Staff building, in whose basement the situation room was located during the six hours that martial law lasted.
The crime of insurrection of which he is accused, in its most serious aspect, can even carry the death penalty. The ousted president promised last week that he will fight “to the end to protect the country,” he said in a message to supporters gathered in front of his residence, which numbered 11,000 last Friday. “Due to internal and external forces infringing on our sovereignty and the activities of anti-state groups, South Korea is in danger.”
Among those gathered this Monday around the presidential complex, with the aim of showing support for Yoon and hindering a possible arrest, were up to 30 deputies from his formation, the People’s Power Party. Kim Ki-hyun, one of them, assured from there before the microphones that the legal provision to arrest the president is “naturally invalid.”
The divisive situation is beginning to be compromising for a country that is, in theory, among the most established democracies in Asia. “The unprecedented political crisis is expected to continue,” the newspaper predicted this Monday. Korean Herald in an editorial, anticipating the request for an extension of the arrest warrant. “Yoon is responsible for complicating the crisis,” he stated in a text in which he also appealed to the dismissed president’s previous role as attorney general to demand respect for the rule of law. “His previous comments that there should be no exceptions in investigations, trials or law enforcement now seem like empty rhetoric.”
On December 3, the country entered a chaotic political whirlwind, with numerous demonstrations demanding the fall of the president and votes against the clock in Parliament that have involved, in addition to the dismissal of Yoon, that of the prime minister, Han Duck-soo. , who had replaced him in office after his dismissal. Currently, Choi Sang-mok is Head of State, Minister of Finance and the next Cabinet member in the presidential line of succession.
In this context of uncertainty, aggravated by the aviation accident on December 30 in which 178 people died, the country has received the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, in what was the first visit by a senior official of the White House since the aborted martial law. After meeting with the South Korean Foreign Minister, Cho Tae-yeol, Blinken assured that he has conveyed to Seoul Washington’s “serious concern” about some of the measures taken by the dismissed president. But he has expressed his confidence in the solidity of the country and the citizens.
“The response that we have seen, and that we hope to continue to see, is peaceful and fully coherent and in line with the Constitution and the rule of law,” he said, according to Reuters.
In the appearance, he also assured that there is credible information that Russia intends to share advanced space and satellite technology with North Korea; The secretive northern neighbor would already be receiving military equipment and training from Moscow, he added. Despite the political crisis, there are things that do not stop. In a new display of military muscle, and in what can be read as a message to the incoming Donald Trump administration, Pyongyang this Monday launched what appears to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile that has flown more than 1,100 kilometers to the east. before falling into the sea, according to the South Korean military.
