South Korean police detain impeached president

SEOUL - South Korean authorities detained President Yoon Suk Yeol Wednesday morning, after he surrendered to “avoid bloodshed” following a dramatic predawn police raid on his official residence.

Yoon, who was impeached last month after making a brief but botched attempt to impose martial law and exert political control, becomes the first South Korean president to be detained while still in office.

He is facing multiple investigations, including a criminal probe on charges of insurrection, and prosecutors now have 48 hours to formally arrest him.

A Seoul court issued a warrant for his arrest after he ignored three summonses to appear for questioning, but prosecutors had not been able to get to the impeached leader.

In extraordinary scenes that unfolded in the freezing early hours of Wednesday morning, some 3,200 police officers massed outside the presidential residence in one of Seoul’s ritziest neighborhoods.

They faced off against throngs of Yoon’s supporters, some of whom were carrying “Stop the Steal” signs, calling the president’s impeachment invalid. Earlier, lawmakers from Yoon’s conservative People Power Party, who formed a human chain in an effort to block the authorities.

Anti-Yoon protesters - many of them wearing silver thermal blankets to ward off the cold, leading to them being nicknamed Hershey Kisses - continued their days-long demonstration in front of the residence.

The country’s acting president said it would cause “irreparable damage” to public trust should the standoff turn violent.

“This is a very important moment for maintaining order and the rule of law” in South Korea, Choi Sang-mok said in a statement. “The eyes of the entire nation and the international community are watching this situation.”

The breadth of Wednesday’s operation dwarfs an attempt earlier this month to detain Yoon, when about 100 prosecutors and police tried to arrest the president but relented after an hours-long standoff with his security team.

Prosecutors from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading the probe into Yoon’s Dec. 3 attempt to impose martial law, on Wednesday showed their search and arrest warrants to the presidential security guards.

Officials quickly became locked in another power struggle with the president’s security service as the sun rose, leading to them arresting the acting head of Yoon’s presidential security service, according to local reports.

Although Yoon’s powers were suspended when he was impeached Dec. 14, he remains the elected president, and his security chief still reports directly to him.

The president’s lawyers have described the warrant as “invalid.” “All of these acts are illegal and constitute internal rebellion,” said one of the president’s attorneys, Yun Gap-geun.

The standoff led police to take unconventional measures during their second attempt to detain Yoon.

Some officers tried to enter the compound through a mountainside trail at the back of the residence, while others were seen carrying ladders and wire cutters. They used the ladders to scale barriers and enter the residential compound, according to the semiofficial Yonhap News Agency, but had yet to enter the residence itself.

There was no sign of Yoon, who has been holed up in his residence for weeks, on Wednesday morning.

Wednesday’s scenes were the latest spectacle in the turbulent events following Yoon’s decision to declare martial law last month in an effort to exert political control in Seoul.

Yoon faces multiple investigations for his botched attempt to institute martial law Dec. 3 and has been banned from leaving the country. Sitting South Korean presidents have immunity except on insurrection or treason charges.

Separately, the Constitutional Court is now weighing whether to uphold the legislature’s vote to impeach Yoon and remove him from office. It held its first hearing Tuesday, but it lasted only four minutes as Yoon did not attend, with his defense team citing safety concerns.

Yoon has claimed that his attempt to impose martial law - the first such decree in more than four decades - was intended to be a warning against opposition lawmakers, who control the National Assembly and whom Yoon accused of “anti-state” activities that “paralyzed” his ability to govern the country.

But a review of testimony by key officials involved in the incident shows that his plan had probably been months in the making and that he intended to use martial law to target political opponents and pursue baseless election fraud claims.

The night of the martial law order, Yoon sent troops to the National Assembly in an unsuccessful attempt to stop lawmakers from getting into the voting chamber and overturning his decree. An Army commander testified during a parliamentary hearing that Yoon gave an order to “drag out” the lawmakers.

The lawmakers’ vote and an eruption of public anger caused Yoon to rescind the decree barely six hours later. But the night’s events precipitated the worst political crisis in South Korea in decades.

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Lee reported from Seoul. Jintak Han in Seoul contributed to this report.