SoKor presidential security chief defies Yoon arrest order
SEOUL—The chief of security for South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Sunday he could not cooperate with efforts to arrest the impeached leader, in remarks that could push the political crisis toward another high-stakes confrontation.
With a warrant for Yoon’s arrest on grounds of insurrection set to expire at midnight on Monday, the official, Park Chong-jun, cited the legal debate surrounding the warrant as the reason for the lack of cooperation.
“Please refrain from insulting remarks that the presidential security service has been reduced to a private army,” he said in a statement, adding that it had provided security to all presidents for 60 years, regardless of political affiliation.
The comments came after a Seoul court rejected a complaint from Yoon’s lawyers that the arrest warrant was illegal and invalid, the Yonhap news agency said. Telephone calls to the court to seek comment went unanswered.
“Judging the legitimacy of any legal interpretation and execution is difficult,” Seok Dong-hyeon, a lawyer advising Yoon, said on Facebook.
“If there is an error in the legality of law enforcement against the incumbent president, it will be a big problem.”
Blinken arriving
Yoon became the first incumbent South Korean president to face arrest for his botched attempt to declare martial law on Dec. 3, which triggered political chaos in Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a key US ally.
The conservative president was impeached by parliament and is suspended from official duties while the Constitutional Court decides whether to reinstate or remove him.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to arrive in Seoul on Sunday for talks with senior officials.
On Friday, Yoon’s presidential security service and military troops had blocked criminal investigators from arresting him in a six-hour standoff.
In Sunday’s statement, Park dismissed as “preposterous” an accusation by the main opposition Democratic Party that he had ordered presidential security officers to use live ammunition if they got “caught short” in Friday’s standoff.
Yoon’s lawyers have said the warrant was unconstitutional because the antigraft force leading his criminal investigation has no authority under South Korean law to investigate any case involving insurrection accusations.
In a statement on Sunday, the lawyers threatened to report to prosecutors Oh Dong-woon, the chief of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) and the investigators for what they called an illegal effort to execute the warrant, in the absence of authority to do so.
The CIO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The dispute over the warrant came against the backdrop of demonstrations by thousands of protesters near Yoon’s official residence amid heavy snow in the capital, Seoul, with some rallies demanding his arrest, and others opposing it.
