By Hyunsu Yim and Joyce Lee
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean authorities investigating impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attempted to enter his residence before dawn on Wednesday in a new bid to arrest him over insurrection accusations related to his Dec. 3 martial law declaration.
Video footage showed investigating officers trying to push through a crowd of Yoon’s supporters gathered outside his hillside villa, where he has been holed up for weeks behind barbed wire and a small army of personal security.
Buses blocked the road leading up to the residence where anti-graft officers were earlier seen talking to Yoon’s lawyers, who argue that the attempts to arrest him are illegal and designed to publicly humiliate the embattled president.
Investigators were foiled on Jan. 3 from serving the first ever arrest warrant issued against an incumbent South Korean president, giving up after a six-hour standoff with his presidential security agents and military guards.
Braving the freezing early morning on Wednesday, hundreds of people protesting Yoon’s arrest gathered nearby singing and waving flags, some bearing “Stop the Steal” slogans referring to Yoon’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
That was one of the reasons Yoon justified his short-lived declaration of martial law that led to his impeachment by lawmakers on Dec. 14 and plunged one of Asia’s most vibrant economies into a period of unprecedented political turmoil.
The Constitutional Court began hearings this week on whether to uphold the impeachment and permanently remove him from office.
Those hearings are separate from the criminal investigation being pursued by the anti-graft officers who were seeking his arrest on Wednesday.
Yoon’s lawyers have said their arrest warrant is illegal because it was issued by a court in the wrong jurisdiction and the team set up to investigate him had no legal mandate to do so.
The team executing the arrest warrant – made up of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) and the police – secured a re-issued warrant on Jan. 7 and has held multiple meetings with Yoon’s personal security in a bid to ensure a successful execution.
Oh Dong-woon, head of the CIO leading the investigation, has said authorities would do whatever it takes to bring Yoon into custody.
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim, Joyce Lee and Ju-min Park; Writing by John Geddie; Editing by Ed Davies and Sandra Maler)
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