Investigators suspend attempt to arrest South Korean president Yoon after standoff with security service – latest updates | South Korea

Raphael Rashid

JTBC claims to have obtained the responses submitted by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s legal team to the constitutional court.

They reportedly argue that since everything has been restored to the pre-martial law state, there is no need for impeachment proceedings.

The document also reportedly asserts that during the short-lived martial law, no fundamental rights, such as life or physical safety, were violated.

Here are the key recent developments:

• South Korean investigators left the official residence of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol after a near-six-hour standoff during which he defied their attempt to detain him. It’s the latest confrontation in a political crisis that has paralyzed South Korean politics and seen two heads of state impeached in under a month.

• The country’s anti-corruption agency said it withdrew its investigators after the presidential security service blocked them from entering Yoon’s residence for hours due to concerns about their safety. The agency expressed “serious regret about the attitude of the suspect, who did not respond to a process by law.”

• Yoon, a former prosecutor, has defied investigators’ attempts to question him for weeks. The last time he is known to have left the residence was on 12 December, when he went to the nearby presidential office to make a televised statement to the nation, making a defiant statement that he will fight efforts to oust him.

• Investigators from the country’s anti-corruption agency are weighing charges of rebellion after Yoon, apparently frustrated that his policies were blocked by an opposition-dominated parliament, declared martial law on 3 December and dispatched troops to surround the National Assembly. A Seoul court issued a warrant for Yoon’s detention on Tuesday, but enforcing it is complicated as long as he remains in his official residence.

• Yoon’s lawyers, who filed a challenge to the warrant on Thursday, say it cannot be enforced at his residence due to a law that protects locations potentially linked to military secrets from search without the consent of the person in charge.

• The office said it will discuss further actions, but did not immediately say whether it would make another attempt to detain Yoon. The warrant for his detention is valid for one week.

Justin McCurry

South Korea’s political crisis took a dramatic turn on Friday when investigators were forced to abandon an attempt to arrest the impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, after a tense standoff with his security forces.

Hours after they entered the presidential compound in Seoul, anti-corruption officials said they were halting their attempt to execute a warrant to detain Yoon over allegations that his martial law declaration in December amounted to an insurrection.

“Regarding the execution of the arrest warrant today, it was determined that the execution was effectively impossible due to the ongoing standoff,” the Corruption Investigation Office said in a statement. “Concern for the safety of personnel on-site led to the decision to halt the execution.”

The investigators’ office said it would discuss further action but did not immediately say whether it would make another attempt to detain Yoon. The warrant for his detention will expire on Monday.

The confrontation unfolded on a freezing winter’s day in Seoul, as an estimated 1,200 Yoon supporters gathered outside his official residence while police and other officials inside attempted to execute an arrest warrant – the first for a sitting South Korean president.

Raphael Rashid

Democratic party lawmaker Jung Chung-rae, who leads the parliamentary team presenting the impeachment case to the constitutional court, said on his way to today’s second preparatory hearing at the court that the “insurrection is not over yet, it’s still ongoing”, according to Seoul Shinmun.

He called for the president’s swift arrest and removal from office, saying it was “necessary for national stability”.

Raphael Rashid

More now on why Yoon supporters wave US flags.

The narrative of election fraud adopted from the US has intensified since Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law this December, which he justified by claiming electoral manipulation and the presence of “pro-North Korean, anti-state forces” – actions that led to his impeachment and current arrest warrant.

With echoes of claims of election denial movements in the US, a Korea Research poll released this week showed that 65% of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party supporters believe last April’s parliamentary elections were fraudulent, despite only 29% of the general public sharing this view.

The elections saw the opposition parties including the Democratic party win a decisive victory, securing 192 seats in the 300-seat parliament. No major election observers or court has raised concerns about the vote, with fraud claims debunked as unsubstantiated.

Regardless, the allegations have been amplified through a network of far-right YouTube channels, where conservative commentators livestream the rallies and promote a wide range of conspiracy theories.

These online echo chambers, which Yoon himself has been accused of relying on for information, have become key platforms for spreading unfounded claims and maintaining supporter morale.

South Korean investigators have left the president’s official residence, the Associated Press reports, after a nearly six-hour standoff during which he defied their attempt detain him in the latest confrontation of a political crisis that has paralysed South Korean politics and seen two heads of state impeached in under a month.

From AFP: South Korean investigators called off their attempt to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed martial law bid on Friday because of a standoff at his residence.

“Regarding the execution of the arrest warrant today, it was determined that the execution was effectively impossible due to the ongoing standoff.

Concern for the safety of personnel on-site led to the decision to halt the execution,” the Corruption Investigation Office said in a statement.

Yonhap News reports that investigators have suspended operations, deeming the execution of his arrest warrant impossible. The Guardian has not verified this independently.

It is unclear how long operations are suspended for. The warrant is valid for another few days, and earlier it was reported that investigators may try again in coming days if they fail today.

Why Yoon supporters are flying US flags

Raphael Rashid

As investigators attempted to arrest president Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday morning, his supporters gathered outside the presidential residence waving two national flags: the South Korean Taegukgi alongside the American Stars and Stripes.

To outsiders, the unexpected combination may seem baffling. But to Yoon’s supporters, America represents more than an ally: it’s a perceived ideal. The symbolism of the US flag is a declaration of a broader cultural and spiritual order they believe is under threat.

Holding both flags outside Yoon’s residence on Friday, 74-year-old Pyeong In-su said the police had to be stopped by “patriotic citizens” and he hoped US president-elect Donald Trump could come to Yoon’s aid.

“I hope after Trump’s inauguration he can use his influence to help our country get back on the right track,” he said, as he waved both flags with the message: “Let’s go together” in English and Korean.

While pro-Yoon groups criticise their opponents as being subservient to North Korea, they openly venerate the United States.

They frequently remind followers that the US liberated Korea from Japanese colonial rule and defended it during the Korean war of 1950-53, casting America as a divine protector of democracy embedded in Christian values.

Over recent years, these groups, which remain a fringe element of South Korean society, have increasingly adopted rhetoric from the American right, particularly around claims of election fraud.