South Korean investigators have used ladders to climb into the residential compound of impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol, in their second attempt to arrest him for his short-lived imposition of martial law, according to reports.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said dozens of police officials had entered Yoon’s compound in central Seoul as of 7:30am local time (22:30 GMT) on Wednesday.
The investigators were initially blocked by the Presidential Security Service, which barricaded the entrance using vehicles, as well as a group of lawmakers from the governing conservative People Power Party and Yoon’s lawyers, Yonhap said.
The standoff at Yoon’s presidential residence comes hours after he failed to appear for the first hearing in his impeachment trial. Efforts to remove him from office continue close to six weeks after he imposed martial law, a move swiftly overturned by the National Assembly.
Patrick Fok, reporting for Al Jazeera from Seoul, said an estimated 1,000 police officers were involved in the operation at the president’s residence.
“The Presidential Security team has warned once again that it sees that this arrest warrant is having no legal basis and said that they will carry out regular security protocols,” Fok said. That “presumably means they will do whatever it takes to protect the president, who remains barricaded inside his official residence right now”, he added.
Thousands of people have gathered outside Yoon’s home, including those chanting messages of support for the impeached president.
This is the investigators’ second attempt to arrest Yoon after an earlier failed attempt ended after an hours-long standoff with his security team inside the presidential compound at the beginning of January.
Since then, Yoon has remained inside his hillside villa in Seoul for weeks in an effort to evade arrest. He also failed to show up for his impeachment trial on Tuesday morning, leading to the hearings being adjourned minutes after they had begun.
The president’s lawyers had said he would not attend the impeachment hearing, adding that he would be prevented from expressing his position freely due to authorities’ ongoing attempts to detain him.
The trial is being held after South Korea’s National Assembly voted on December 14 to impeach Yoon, after he imposed martial law in a surprise late-night address on December 3, 2024.
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