South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrested after martial law ’coup attempt’
When Yoon Suk Yeol, who is South Korean President, declared martial law in his country, he was suspended and now authorities have finally detained the politician.
South Korea’s suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested on Wednesday morning - after a six-hour stand-off.
Police entered the politician’s compound but faced a showdown at the gate with Yoon’s security detail. However, officers eventually manage to arrest the man over his imposition of martial law last month.
Anticorruption investigators were also at the fortified hilltop compound in Seoul for the predawn raid, during which hundreds of Yoon’s supporters and critics held competing protests nearby.
In a video message recorded before he was escorted to the headquarters of the anti-corruption agency, Yoon, 64, lamented that the "rule of law has completely collapsed in this country."
But Park Chan-dae, floor leader of the leftwing opposition Democratic Party of Korea, said: "Yoon’s arrest is the first step towards restoring our constitutional order. It underlines that justice is still alive."
Yoon, who has been his country’s leader since 2022, declared martial law and put troops around the National Assembly on December 3. It lasted only hours before lawmakers got through the blockade and vote to lift the measure. The Assembly later voted to impeach him, accusing him of rebellion. His fate now rests with the Constitutional Court in South Korea.
The National Police Agency has convened multiple meetings of field commanders in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province in recent days to plan their detainment efforts, and the size of those forces fueled speculation that more than a thousand officers could be deployed in a possible multiday operation. The agency and police have openly warned that presidential bodyguards obstructing the execution of the warrant could be arrested.
Yoon’s lawyers have claimed that the detainment warrant issued by the Seoul Western District Court was invalid. They cited a law that protects locations potentially linked to military secrets from search without the consent of the person in charge — which would be Yoon. The court warrant for Yoon’s detainment is valid until January 21.
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