January 6, 2025
SEOUL – Law enforcement, Yoon Eun-hye's representatives accuse each other of obstructing public officials; opposition claims presidential security service ordered to shoot if subdued
Facing real hurdles in trying to detain embattled President Yoon Seok-yeol on suspicion of rebellion, South Korea's joint investigative agency of prosecutors is weighing its options as an arrest warrant is set to expire.
A detention order issued against Yin on charges related to the declaration of martial law on December 3 is set to expire at midnight on Monday.
In a closed-door briefing, an official from the Office for the Investigation of Senior Officials' Corruption Investigations, which has the power to independently seek arrest warrants, told reporters on Sunday that it had “a number of options.” Those steps include trying to re-execute the detention order on Monday, asking the court for an extension or seeking a new arrest warrant. He added that Yin's representatives had not expressed any intention to attend the information chief's questioning.
If investigators led by the CIO manage to detain Yoon before midnight on Monday, they will have 48 hours to question him. To hold him longer, they would need to apply for another arrest warrant, allowing them to detain Yin for up to 20 more days.
Meanwhile, law enforcement and Yin's legal representatives sought action against each other after a standoff at the presidential palace on Friday between security guards and a 150-person team of investigators and police trying to execute an arrest warrant.
Representatives for Yoon Eun-hye said in a statement on Sunday that they would file complaints on Monday against 150 chief information, police and defense ministry officials involved in the attempted execution of the arrest warrant, including Chief Information Officer Oh Dong-woon. . They charged the officers with obstructing official duties, injuring a public official and violating the Military Bases and Installations Protection Act.
Police, on the other hand, urged officials from the Presidential Security Service, which provides bodyguard protection to the president, to appear for questioning as they begin an investigation into alleged obstruction of official duties. Public Security Chief Park Jung-jun, who rejected the police request on Saturday, was told to appear in court on Tuesday.
Lawmakers from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, including floor leader Park Chan-dae, also claimed on Sunday that the head of the Social Security Administration had instructed presidential bodyguards to shoot investigators who entered Yoon's residence if they found themselves being subdued.
PSS denied the claims and said it had never considered doing so, adding that it would take legal action against the baseless rumors. The head of the Ministry of Public Security later said that given the controversy surrounding the validity of the warrant for Yin's arrest, the agency would be neglecting its duty to protect Yin if it agreed with investigators to execute the warrant.
On Friday, about 50 staff from investigative agencies and police jointly tried to enter Yin's residence. Investigators managed to get through the gate but eventually retreated after a more than five-hour standoff with presidential guards and Army soldiers.
Tensions increased over the weekend, with conservatives backing Yoon denying that the court had standing to issue an arrest warrant and that the chief information officer had standing to receive one because the office's investigation is supposed to be limited to corruption.
On the other hand, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea asked CIO investigators to push for Yun's detention, while accusing senior officials in President Yoon's security department of obstructing investigators from fulfilling their duties under the detention order.
Won Hee-yong, a veteran conservative politician and former land minister in the Yoon administration, noted on his Facebook account on Sunday that the information chief has no authority to investigate the rebellion accusations.
He added that courts were not competent to grant investigators access to high-security areas and therefore the judge who issued the warrant should be impeached.
Won also demanded that the Dec. 14 parliamentary vote to impeach Yoon, which is currently under review by the Constitutional Court, be invalidated after the opposition removed the rebellion charge from the impeachment motion on Friday.
“Any attempt to impeach (the president) without a constitutional basis or to illegally detain a sitting president simply because he does not suit their liking or has committed misconduct should not be tolerated,” Yuan said.
Yoon Sang-hyun, a five-term lawmaker from the ruling party, told reporters after a meeting of party lawmakers on Saturday that President Yoon “is paying attention to the collapse of South Korea's judicial system.”
The lawmaker also said President Yoon should take seriously the collapse of South Korea caused by the “left-leaning judicial cartel.”
However, Rep. Yoon Jong-geun, speaker of the Democratic House of Representatives, said on Sunday that the delay in retaining Yoon Jong-geun as chief information officer would “disrupt South Korea's constitutional order.”
Democratic lawmakers visited the chief information officer's headquarters and the police's Office of National Investigation late Sunday to call for faster action to execute the warrant.
At issue is whether the chief information officer has the authority to bring charges against senior officials suspected of insurrection.
The scope of the agency's investigation does not explicitly list the insurrection as “corruption of senior officials” under the Information Chief Establishment and Operations Act.
However, the law states that the information chief can investigate allegations directly related to his ongoing corruption investigation, including crimes outside his jurisdiction. Police cannot apply for a court search order alone and without a chief information officer would need support from prosecutors.
The CIO, who has the power to apply for arrest warrants but not to prosecute officials, claimed the Seoul Western District Court's decision to issue the warrants “recognizes (the CIO's) authority to investigate allegations of rebellion.”
The court's decision drew strong condemnation from the ruling bloc. On Thursday, ruling party Rep. Luo Qingyuan claimed that the court judge who issued the arrest warrant on Tuesday belonged to a liberal association.
The court on Sunday rejected an injunction filed by Yoon's representatives on Sunday, clearing the way for investigators to enter the high-security area through a court search warrant.
The agency sent formal documents twice before Saturday asking the government to cooperate in executing the arrest warrant, but the government led by acting President and Deputy Prime Minister Choe Sang-mok has remained silent, according to the chief information officer.
Choi's office on Sunday quoted Choi as saying that injuries to any public official in the course of law enforcement should never happen.
