Reuters
Authorities brave freezing temperatures and cut barbed wire to reach Yoon
South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol became the country’s first sitting president to be arrested after investigators scaled barricades and cut barbed wire to arrest him.
Yoon, 64, is under investigation for insurrection following the failure of the Dec. 3 martial law order that plunged the country into turmoil.
He was also impeached by Parliament and suspended from office – but he will not be removed from office until the Constitutional Court rules on his indictment.
Yoon’s dramatic arrest Friday, however, ends a weeks-long standoff between investigators and his presidential security team.
The Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) had already tried to arrest him on January 3, but they were blocked by buses and barbed wire.
But shortly before dawn on Wednesday, a team of investigators arrived, armed with ladders to climb onto the buses and pliers to cut the barbed wire.
Other officers on the team – which numbered about 1,000 – scaled walls and hiked nearby trails to reach the presidential residence.
After several hours, authorities announced that Yoon had been arrested.
In a three-minute video released just before his arrest, the 64-year-old executive said he would cooperate with investigators, while reiterating his previous assertions that the arrest warrant was not legally valid.
He said he witnessed how authorities “invaded” the security perimeter of his home with firefighting equipment.
“I have decided to appear before the IOC, even though it is an illegal investigation, in order to avoid any unsavory bloodshed,” he said.
Watch: President Yoon addresses South Korea before arrest
Yoon’s People Power Party called his arrest “illegal,” while its leader Kweon Seong-dong called Wednesday’s events “regrettable.”
But opposition Democratic Party leader Park Chan-dae said Yoon’s arrest showed that “justice in South Korea is alive.”
This arrest “is the first step towards the restoration of constitutional order, democracy and the rule of law”, he declared during a party meeting.
The country is currently led by Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok as acting president. He was propelled to power after the first acting president, Han Duck-soo, was also impeached by the opposition-majority parliament.
On Wednesday afternoon, investigators said Yoon was being questioned but invoked his right to remain silent.
Yoon is expected to be held overnight at Seoul’s detention center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi province, about 5 km (3 mi) from the IOC office.
However, if a court does not issue an arrest warrant within 48 hours of Yoon’s arrest, he will be released and free to return to the presidential residence.
Pro-Yoon’s supporters continued to protest his arrest outside the investigation office where he is being held.
They gathered outside Yoon’s house Wednesday morning, alongside those who opposed him.
The anti-Yoon crowd cheered, clapped and chanted a song of “congratulations and celebrations” when his arrest was announced.
The pro-Yoon camp, however, was dismayed. “We are very upset and angry: the rule of law has collapsed,” one supporter told the BBC.
Even though the vast majority of South Koreans agree that Yoon must be held accountable for the martial law order, they cannot agree on what accountability looks like, Duyeon Kim told the BBC earlier, assistant research fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
On Wednesday morning, both sides highlighted the deep divisions in the country – a sign that the political crisis is not yet over as more uncertainties loom.
