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Drama Continues over Potential Arrest of SK President Yoon [1]

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Date: 2025-01-01

My last installment on South Korea’s still unfolding political crisis highlighted the unprecedented issuance of an arrest warrant for impeached and suspended (but still sitting) president Yoon Suk-yeol on a charge of insurrection/treason stemming from his attempt at a coup against his own government by way of a short-lived martial law declaration.

It’s now nearly 48 hours later, and the arrest warrant has yet to be served — from CNA today:

Supporters and opponents of Yoon, who was suspended from office by lawmakers over his attempt to subvert civilian rule last month, have been camped outside the compound where he has been holed up for weeks, fending off investigators' efforts to question him. The Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) requested the warrant after Yoon failed to report for questioning a third time, but it has been unclear whether they could execute it as the Presidential Security Service had previously refused to comply with search warrants. Yoon has remained defiant and late on Wednesday appeared to suggest he would refuse to hand himself over in a statement shared with supporters camped outside his residence in Seoul. "The Republic of Korea is currently in danger due to internal and external forces threatening its sovereignty and the activities of anti-state elements," he said in the statement, his lawyer Yoon Kab-keun confirmed to AFP. "I vow to fight alongside you to the very end to protect this nation," he added, saying he was watching the hundreds-strong protest on a YouTube livestream. Jo Seoung-lae, a lawmaker for the opposition Democratic Party said in a statement that Yoon's message was "highly inappropriate", calling him "delusional" and accusing him of trying to incite clashes.

So despite a post-coup approval rating down around 11%, Yoon still has hundreds of his most loyal supporters willing to camp out in the cold in front of his official residence to try and keep the police from actually arresting him. OTOH, the CIO doesn’t appear to be bluffing here either:

CIO chief Oh Dong-woon said on Wednesday the warrant would be executed "within the deadline", which is on Monday. "We aim for a smooth process without major disturbances, but we are also coordinating to mobilise police and personnel in preparation," he told reporters. He also warned that anyone trying to block authorities from arresting Yoon could themselves face prosecution.

Meanwhile, the finance minister and current acting president, Choi Sang-mok, unexpectedly approved two of the three judges nominated by the National Assembly to fill out the ranks of the Constitutional Court that is due to rule on whether Yoon’s impeachment will be upheld or overturned in the next several months. From Reuters:

Senior aides to South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol offered to resign en masse on Wednesday, a day after his office expressed regret over acting President Choi Sang-mok's approval of two new judges to a court set to decide Yoon's fate. ... Choi said he would not accept their resignation as the priority now was to focus on improving the economy and stabilising state affairs, his office said. ... The aides' latest offer came a day after Choi's surprise approval to fill two vacancies on the Constitutional Court handling the impeachment trial against Yoon. It brought the total number of justices to eight on the nine-member court. Any decision in the Yoon case will require the agreement of at least six judges. Yoon's ruling People Power Party criticised Choi's decision as "dogmatic" and lacking sufficient consultations. Finance Minister Choi assumed the role of acting president on Friday after the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who had been acting president since Dec. 14 when Yoon was suspended from power.

Yoon’s PPP had been arguing that only an elected president could approve new judges for the SKCC, hoping that by preventing any such approvals it would be that much more difficult to get the constitutionally mandated minimum of six sitting judges to uphold the impeachment, and which is why Choi’s predecessor as acting president was likewise impeached by the National Assembly when he refused to approve the new judges. Not sure why Choi didn’t approve the ninth judge — perhaps his idea of a “compromise”? In any event, stay tuned for whatever the next plot twist might be in this increasingly bizarre melodrama.

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