“Regarding the execution of the arrest warrant today, it was determined that the execution was effectively impossible due to the ongoing standoff.
Concern for the safety of personnel on-site led to the decision to halt the execution,” the Corruption Investigation Office said in a statement.
South Korea for talks next week, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Friday, with the country mired in political turmoil as its impeached president resists arrest, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
South Korea is a key security ally for Washington but the country has been racked by a crisis sparked by president Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed martial law decree on 3 December.
Blinken will meet his counterpart, Cho Tae-yul, on Monday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“They are expected to discuss the South Korea-US alliance, South Korea-US-Japan cooperation, North Korea issues, and regional and global challenges,” the ministry said.
Investigators probing Yoon’s declaration of martial law made an attempt to enforce a warrant for his arrest on Friday but it was repelled by presidential security guards. That warrant expires on 6 January, the same day Blinken plans to meet Cho.
Washington last month said it would “speak out” to South Korea to safeguard democracy after Yoon’s bungled declaration.
“South Korea’s democracy is robust and resilient, and we’re going to continue to speak out publicly and engage privately with South Korean counterparts to reinforce the importance of that continuing,” US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said.
South Korea with the words “Let’s go together” in English and Korean, said he was banking on Trump’s return to save Yoon. “I hope that Trump will take office soon and raise his voice against the rigged elections in our country plus around the world so as to help President Yoon to return [to power] swiftly,” Pyeong said.
Seo Hye-kyoung who was holding a “Stop the Steal” sign with the Chinese flag claimed that “Chinese people have come to our country and stole our votes”. When asked about the NEC’s public denial of election fraud, Seo said she trusts Yoon. “The president is not someone who would say something wrong,” she said.
Hundreds of pro-Yoon protesters surrounded the presidential compound, some stayed out overnight in sub-zero temperatures, hoping to head off the arrest attempt, reports Reuters. “Invalid impeachment,” the protesters chanted with some sporting the US flag which is often found at protests by conservatives in the country.
Trump has been impeached twice, but acquitted.
Hankook Research poll released this week showed that 65% of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party supporters believe last April’s parliamentary elections were fraudulent, despite only 29% of the general public sharing this view.
JTBC claims to have obtained the responses submitted by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s legal team to the constitutional court.
They reportedly argue that since everything has been restored to the pre-martial law state, there is no need for impeachment proceedings.
The document also reportedly asserts that during the short-lived martial law, no fundamental rights, such as life or physical safety, were violated.
open fire now hiding in the presidential residence, evading lawful enforcement”.Yoon Suk Yeol.
Yoon is required to appear for the first arguments.
The court said it has planned a second session for 16 January in case Yoon refuses to appear for the first arguments.
Yoon Suk Yeol after a near-six-hour standoff during which he defied their attempt to detain him. It’s the latest confrontation in a political crisis that has paralyzed South Korean politics and seen two heads of state impeached in under a month.
The country’s anti-corruption agency said it withdrew its investigators after the presidential security service blocked them from entering Yoon’s residence for hours due to concerns about their safety. The agency expressed “serious regret about the attitude of the suspect, who did not respond to a process by law.”
Yoon, a former prosecutor, has defied investigators’ attempts to question him for weeks. The last time he is known to have left the residence was on 12 December, when he went to the nearby presidential office to make a televised statement to the nation, making a defiant statement that he will fight efforts to oust him.
Investigators from the country’s anti-corruption agency are weighing charges of rebellion after Yoon, apparently frustrated that his policies were blocked by an opposition-dominated parliament, declared martial law on 3 December and dispatched troops to surround the National Assembly. A Seoul court issued a warrant for Yoon’s detention on Tuesday, but enforcing it is complicated as long as he remains in his official residence.
Yoon’s lawyers, who filed a challenge to the warrant on Thursday, say it cannot be enforced at his residence due to a law that protects locations potentially linked to military secrets from search without the consent of the person in charge.
The office said it will discuss further actions, but did not immediately say whether it would make another attempt to detain Yoon. The warrant for his detention is valid for one week.
Yonhap reports that according to investigators, there were “various small and large scuffles” as they tried to arrest president Yoon.
The Corruption Investigation Office says that investigators faced a human wall formed by 200 presidential personnel, were outnumbered, and could not get through, according to Yonhap.
Source: theguardian.com
