By Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a new and potentially more robust attempt to arrest him on insurrection charges after a top investigator vowed to do whatever it takes to break a security blockade and take in the impeached leader.
Protesters both supporting and opposing to the embattled Yoon continued to brave freezing temperatures to stage rallies on the streets around the presidential compound on Wednesday after a court re-issued a warrant to arrest Yoon a day earlier.
The Presidential Security Service (PSS) was seen this week fortifying the compound with barbed wire and barricades using buses to block access to the hillside villa where Yoon is believed to be, having defied summons to appear for questioning.
Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his Dec. 3 martial law bid that stunned South Korea and led to the first arrest warrant to be issued for a sitting president.
He is also involved in a separate Constitutional Court trial over his Dec. 14 impeachment for violating his constitutional duties with the late-night martial law declaration.
Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) which is leading the probe against Yoon, on Tuesday apologised for a failed arrest attempt last Friday after a tense six-hour standoff inside the presidential compound.
Oh called off the arrest attempt after being blocked from entering the presidential compound by a human chain of hundreds of PSS members and military guards.
“We’ll do our best to accomplish our goal by thoroughly preparing this time with great determination that the second warrant execution will be the last,” Oh told a parliament committee. It was not immediately clear how long the new arrest warrant would last.
Oh did not object when members of parliament called for tough action to overpower the presidential guards and military troops inside the compound, but he declined to confirm what options were being considered.
Various scenarios reported in local media include mobilising police special tactical unit forces and heavy equipment to push through the barricades, followed by more than 2,000 police to drag out presidential guards, taking as long as three days if necessary to wear down presidential security agents.
The CIO and police were outnumbered in the earlier arrest attempt by cordons of more than 200 PSS personnel, some of whom were carrying firearms, as well as troops seconded to presidential security, as the two sides engaged in altercations, a CIO official has said.
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies and Michael Perry)
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