By Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a new and potentially stronger attempt to arrest him on insurrection charges after a top investigator vowed to do whatever it takes to break a security blockade and arrest the accused leader.
Protesters supporting and opposing the embattled Yoon continued to brave frigid temperatures to stage demonstrations in the streets around the presidential complex on Wednesday after a court reissued an arrest warrant for Yoon a day earlier.
This week the Presidential Security Service (PSS) was seen fortifying the compound with barbed wire and barricades using buses to block access to the hillside villa where Yoon is believed to be staying, after he defied summons to appear for be interrogated.
Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his proposal to implement martial law on Dec. 3, which stunned South Korea and led to the first arrest warrant issued against a sitting president.
He is also involved in a separate trial in the Constitutional Court over his impeachment on December 14 for violating his constitutional duties with the late-night declaration of martial law.
Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for Senior Officials (CIO) who is leading the investigation against Yoon, apologized on Tuesday for a failed arrest attempt last Friday after a tense six-hour standoff inside of the presidential complex.
Oh called off the arrest attempt after a human chain of hundreds of PSS members and military guards prevented him from entering the presidential complex.
“We will do everything possible to achieve our goal by preparing thoroughly this time with great determination so that the second execution of the order will be the last,” Oh told a parliamentary committee. It was not immediately clear how long the new arrest warrant would last.
Oh did not object when MPs called for tough measures to subdue presidential guards and military troops inside the complex, but he declined to confirm what options were being considered.
Various scenarios reported in local media include the mobilization of police special tactical unit forces and heavy equipment to break through the barricades, followed by more than 2,000 police officers to drag out the presidential guards, taking up to three days if necessary to wear down presidential security agents.
The CIO and police were outnumbered in the previous arrest attempt by cordons of more than 200 PSS members, some of whom carried firearms, as well as troops attached to presidential security, as the two sides engaged in altercations, said a CIO official.