South Korean investigators have arrested South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol over accusations of insurrection for briefly imposing martial law in a move swiftly overturned by the country’s National Assembly.
“The Joint Investigation Headquarters executed an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk-yeol today [January 15] at 10:33 am [01:30 GMT],” the authorities said in a statement on Wednesday, making Yoon the first South Korean president to be arrested while still in office.
In a prerecorded video message released after his arrest, Yoon said he had made the decision to submit to questioning over his failed martial law bid to avert “bloodshed”.
“I decided to respond to the Corruption Investigation Office,” Yoon said, adding that he did not accept the legality of the investigation but was complying “to prevent any unfortunate bloodshed”.
South Korean investigators and police used ladders to climb into Yoon’s residential compound after they were initially blocked by the Presidential Security Service, which barricaded the entrance using vehicles, according to reports.
Thousands of people, including supporters, had gathered outside Yoon’s home, while a group of lawmakers from the governing conservative People Power Party and Yoon’s lawyers had also attempted to prevent the arrest inside the residential compound, the reports said.
After the arrest, Yoon’s presidential motorcade was seen leaving his hillside residence with police escorts. A vehicle apparently carrying Yoon later arrived at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials in the nearby city of Gwacheon.
The standoff at Yoon’s presidential residence came just hours after he failed to appear for the first hearing in his impeachment trial over his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3.
Patrick Fok, reporting for Al Jazeera from Seoul, said an estimated 1,000 police officers were involved in the arrest operation at the president’s residence and Yoon would now face questioning.
Yoon was not present at the opening of his impeachment trial on Tuesday and South Korea’s Constitutional Court had said that they needed him to be present, Fok said.
“Now that he has been arrested, perhaps he will show up in court tomorrow,” he added.
The operation on Wednesday was the second attempt by investigators to arrest Yoon. An earlier failed attempt ended after an hours-long standoff with his security team inside the presidential compound at the beginning of January.
Since then, Yoon had remained inside his hillside villa in Seoul for weeks in an effort to evade arrest. He also failed to show up for his impeachment trial on Tuesday morning, leading to the hearings being adjourned minutes after they had begun.
The impeached president’s lawyers had said that he would not attend the impeachment hearing, adding that he would be prevented from expressing his position freely due to authorities’ ongoing attempts to detain him.
The trial is being held after South Korea’s National Assembly voted on December 14 to impeach Yoon, after he imposed martial law in a surprise late-night address on December 3, 2024.
After first rising to prominence as chief prosecutor of former conservative President Park Geun-hye on charges of corruption in 2017, Yoon took office in May 2022, but faced an uphill battle pushing his agenda against an opposition-controlled parliament. (Al Jazeera)