South Korean investigators have arrested South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on charges of insurrection for briefly imposing martial law, a measure quickly reversed by the country’s National Assembly.
“The Joint Investigation Headquarters executed an arrest warrant against President Yoon Suk-yeol today (January 15) at 10:33 a.m. (01:30 GMT),” authorities said in a statement Wednesday, making Yoon the first South Korean president to be arrested while still in office.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that the deputy head of the Korea Corruption Investigation Bureau (CIO), Lee Jae-seung, conducted the interrogation of Yoon in an interrogation room, in the presence of the legal representatives of Yoon. The IOC said Yoon would be held at Seoul’s Uiwang detention center after being questioned, Reuters news agency reported.
In a pre-recorded video message released after his arrest, Yoon said he had made the decision to submit to questioning over his failed attempt to impose martial law to prevent “bloodshed.”
“I decided to respond to the Corruption Investigation Bureau,” Yoon said, adding that he did not accept the legality of the investigation but was complying with it “to avoid any bloodshed unhappy.”
South Korean investigators and police used ladders to climb into Yoon’s residential compound earlier in the day after initially being blocked by presidential security, who barricaded the entrance using vehicles , according to the information.
Thousands of people, including supporters, had gathered outside Yoon’s home, while a group of lawmakers from the ruling conservative People Power Party and Yoon’s lawyers also tried to prevent the arrest inside the presidential compound, according to reports.
Authorities now have 48 hours to question Yoon, after which they must seek a warrant to detain him for up to 20 days or release him.
Investigators began questioning the suspended president shortly after his arrest, but said he exercised “his right to remain silent.” He also refused permission to film the interview.
The IOC, which prepared a more than 200-page questionnaire for Yoon, told reporters it had no information on why he refused to speak.
The standoff at Yoon’s presidential residence took place just hours after he failed to appear for the first hearing of his impeachment trial following the short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3.
Patrick Fok, an Al Jazeera reporter from Seoul, said about 1,000 police officers were involved in the arrest operation at the president’s residence.
“The Corruption Investigation Bureau can detain him for a maximum of 48 hours. They then have to decide, at that point, whether or not they want to seek an arrest warrant against the president,” Fok said.
“It’s not clear whether this will be necessary or not, but of course it’s been very difficult to get to this point,” he said.
Yoon was not present at the opening of his impeachment trial on Tuesday and South Korea’s Constitutional Court had said it needed his presence, Fok said.
“Now that he has been arrested, maybe he will appear in court tomorrow,” he added.
Wednesday’s operation was investigators’ second attempt to arrest Yoon. One sooner failed attempt ended after an hours-long standoff between authorities and Yoon’s security team inside the presidential compound in early January.
Since then, Yoon had stayed in his hillside villa in Seoul for weeks in an attempt to evade arrest. He also failed to show up for his impeachment trial Tuesday morning, causing the hearings to be adjourned minutes after they began.
Lawyers for the indicted president had said their client would not attend the impeachment hearing because he would be prevented from freely expressing his position due to authorities’ continued attempts to arrest him.
The hearing comes after South Korea’s National Assembly voted on Dec. 14 to impeach Yoon for his imposition of martial law during a surprise late-night speech on Dec. 3, 2024.
After becoming known to the public as chief prosecutor of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye for corruption in 2017, Yoon took office in May 2022.
With his popularity plummeting, Yoon shocked the nation when he declared martial law, saying it was necessary to protect South Korea “from threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and eliminate elements anti-state”.
He deployed troops to Parliament, but lawmakers defied him and voted against the move. Yoon was forced to retract his statement after just six hours, but the decision marked the start of a period of unprecedented political unrest in South Korea.