South Korea’s Yoon will be arrested within the deadline, says the head of the anti-corruption department | Politics News
The head of the Office for the Investigation of Corruption for High Officials warns that anyone who blocks an arrest may be prosecuted.
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will be arrested before his short-term state of emergency expires next week, the country’s top anti-corruption investigator said.
Oh Dong-woon, head of the Bureau of Corruption Investigation for Senior Officials, told reporters on Wednesday that the arrest warrant against Yoon would be executed “within the applicable deadline”, the last day of which is Monday.
“We aim for a smooth process without major disruptions, but we are also coordinating to mobilize police and personnel in preparation,” Oh told reporters at a government complex in Gwacheon, south of Seoul.
Oh warned that anyone trying to prevent Yoon’s arrest could be prosecuted.
“We consider actions such as setting up various barricades and locking iron gates to resist the execution of our arrest warrant as obstruction of official duties,” he said.
Speculation about when and how authorities will take Yoon into custody has been swirling since the country’s Joint Investigation Staff requested an arrest warrant for Yoon, which a Seoul court granted on Tuesday.
Yoon’s security has previously prevented investigators from executing several search warrants targeting the president, and local media have suggested that authorities are unlikely to forcibly detain the militant leader without coordinating with his bodyguards.
If arrested, Yoon will be the first sitting president to be detained in South Korea’s history.
He faces criminal charges of abuse of power and sedition, a crime punishable by life in prison or the death penalty, for his short-lived imposition of martial law on Dec. 3, which plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.
Yoon’s legal team argued that the warrant was “illegal and invalid” since investigators do not have the authority to investigate the president for sedition.
Yoon, who was the chief prosecutor before entering politics, has been suspended from his duties since December 14, when the National Assembly voted 204-85 to impeach him.
Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok has served as acting president since Friday, when the legislature voted to impeach Yoon’s original successor, Han Duck-soo, over his refusal to immediately appoint three judges to the country’s Constitutional Court.
The court is considering whether to uphold Yoon’s impeachment or restore his presidential powers, a process that could take up to six months.
On Tuesday, Choi approved the appointment of two judges proposed by parliament, leaving only one vacancy on the bench.
At least six judges on the nine-judge court must approve Yoon’s impeachment to remove him from office.
Yoon defended his brief martial law decree as legal and necessary, citing the threat from “anti-state forces” and obstructionism by his opposition rivals.
