(Seoul) Thousands of supporters and detractors of ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol brave the snow on Sunday in Seoul, on the eve of the expiration of an arrest warrant issued against him for his failed attempt to impose martial law in early December.
Posted yesterday at 11:34 p.m.
Jack MOORE
Agence France-Presse
In front of his residence, supporters of the former star prosecutor came in numbers, AFP journalists noted, despite the cold and the white coat that covered the capital during the night.
“I went through war and -20 degree temperatures in the snow to fight […] This snow is nothing,” Park Young-chul told AFP, asserting that the “war is here again”.
PHOTO AHN YOUNG-JOON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Supporters of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol demonstrate in the snow
Another rally, this time of Yoon’s opponents, is planned from 2 p.m. (12 a.m. Eastern Time), but some detractors were already there in the morning.
“I left my job to come protect our country and democracy. I live two hours from here and going to the demonstrations and then leaving was too much,” Lee Jin-ah, a 28-year-old anti-Yoon, told AFP.
“Snow is nothing […] we will still be there,” continues the former cafe employee, who spent the night in front of Yoon Suk-yeol’s home.
The arrest warrant issued against him, to force him to answer questions about his brief imposition of martial law in early December, expires Monday evening. The investigators, who failed to seize him on their first attempt on Friday, had assured that the warrant would be executed within the deadline.
Mr. Yoon, 64, is the subject of several investigations, including for “rebellion”, accused of having shaken the young South Korean democracy with his coup, which revived the painful memory of the military dictatorship.
ARCHIVED PHOTO OF THE KOREAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE, PROVIDED BY REUTERS
Ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol
On the night of December 3 to 4, in Parliament surrounded by soldiers, enough deputies managed to vote for a motion demanding the lifting of the state of exception. Under pressure from elected officials, thousands of demonstrators and constrained by the Constitution, Yoon Suk-yeol had to comply a few hours after his shock decision.
“Rebel Force”
On December 14, the Assembly passed an impeachment motion against him, leading to his immediate suspension. However, he officially remains the titular president while waiting for the Constitutional Court to rule on his case by mid-June.
His possible arrest would be a first for a sitting South Korean president.
However, investigators left his home empty-handed on Friday, blocked in their attempt to arrest him by his guard, who refused to respect the warrant.
The Senior Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), the entity centralizing the investigations, asked Acting President Choi Sang-mok on Saturday to order Yoon’s protection staff to cooperate.
“The presidential security service has violated the Constitution, becoming in fact a rebel force,” Park Chan-dae, head of deputies of the Democratic Party, the main opposition force and majority group in the Parliament, lambasted Saturday in Parliament. hemicycle.
South Korea has continued to descend into political chaos since the beginning of December, the first interim president also having been dismissed on the 27th by deputies, who accused him of obstructing the proceedings against Mr. Yoon. Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok then took over and serves as the second acting president.
In this context, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken is expected in Seoul, notably for a meeting on Monday with his counterpart Cho Tae-yul.
