Drama and chaos in Seoul during failed attempt to arrest Yoon: News

Drama and chaos in Seoul during failed attempt to arrest Yoon: News
Drama and chaos in Seoul during failed attempt to arrest Yoon: News

A deposed president holed up in his residence, hundreds of his supporters gathered nearby, investigators who came to arrest him but retreated in the face of twice as many bodyguards: South Korea experienced a new episode of violence on Friday. incredible chaos.

Deposed on December 14, President Yoon Suk Yeol is cloistered in his house in the heights of the chic Hannam district in Seoul.

Since an arrest warrant was issued against him on December 31 for his failed declaration of martial law on December 3, hundreds of his supporters have gathered in the surrounding area, camping out day and night and saying they are ready to fight to defend it.

Among them, well-known far-right YouTubers and evangelical Christian preachers, who are among the last unconditional supporters of Mr. Yoon from whom the traditional right, which elected him in 2022, has mostly distanced itself. The major conservative daily Dong-A Ilbo even judged the president's behavior “deplorable” on Friday and accused him of having transformed South Korea into a “total wreck.”

“Yoon Suk Yeol! Yoon Suk yeol!” his supporters chanted, waving red light sticks and South Korean and American flags.

– “Risk our lives” –

“We are gathered here today, ready to risk our lives,” Lee Hye-sook, 57, told AFP, who accuses the opposition of “trying to transform our country into a socialist state like North Korea “.

“It's a fight against anti-state forces. We are facing a situation where our country can preserve liberal democracy or lose it,” said Choi Sung-hwan, 47, who arrived there Thursday evening.

“We must fight to the end. It's not just about protecting the president, it's about protecting liberal democracy,” he adds.

A large police force supervises these demonstrators, after clashes the previous evening between supporters and detractors of Mr. Yoon.

On Friday morning, a team from the Senior Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), which is centralizing the “rebellion” investigation against Mr. Yoon, entered the presidential residence to try to arrest the deposed president, who had previously ignored three subpoenas for questioning.

– Human wall –

Arriving in five cars, whose journey was followed live since dawn by South Korean television, this team was initially blocked by around ten vehicles blocking the access path. She finally managed to enter the property “by taking a circuitous path on the hillside,” an IOC official said during a press briefing.

The hundred police officers and prosecutors of the CIO then found themselves faced with “more than 200 people who held each other’s arms to block our passage”, he continued, adding that there had been “ minor and major physical altercations” between the two camps.

After about forty minutes of tense face-to-face contact with the presidential bodyguards, the IOC decided to retreat, fearing for its safety.

Investigators have until Monday to execute the arrest warrant issued by a Seoul court against Mr. Yoon, which expires after seven days. In a letter to his supporters on Wednesday, the deposed leader promised to “fight until the end”.

Even after news broke that the arrest attempt had failed, Mr. Yoon's supporters said it was “too early for relief.”

“We can't be sure that the IOC has really withdrawn, and if we all go home, they might come back and try to arrest the president again,” Lee Hye-sook told AFP. “The arrest warrant is valid until the 6th, and many of us will stay here until then.”

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