Police hampered in search of presidential complex in Seoul

(Keystone-ATS) Police said in the morning that a “special investigation team” had “conducted a search at the presidential office, the National Police Agency, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and the Seoul Security Department.” the National Assembly”.

In the middle of the afternoon, however, a spokesperson explained that investigators had “accessed the civil services office” of the complex. “However, we are currently unable to enter the main building due to access restrictions imposed by presidential security officers,” he added. The presidency could not immediately be reached.

New impeachment motion

Yoon Suk Yeol stunned the country by imposing martial law on the night of December 3 to 4, before being forced to repeal it six hours later under pressure from Parliament and the streets. He has since narrowly escaped a motion for dismissal submitted to a vote by the National Assembly, saved by his party.

But the main opposition force, the Democratic Party, has set a second vote in this direction for Saturday 5:00 p.m. (9:00 a.m. Swiss), a spokesperson said. If eight MPs from Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) support the motion, it could be adopted. On the first attempt, only two voted for the motion. Since Tuesday, three others have announced they will do so as well.

Tentative de suicide

On Wednesday, authorities reported that the former Defense Minister in office at the time of the short-lived martial law, Kim Yong-hyun, had attempted suicide in detention, minutes before his formal arrest permitted by the issuance of a warrant against him.

Accused of having played a “crucial role during a rebellion” and committing an “abuse of power to obstruct the exercise of rights”, he had already been in detention since Sunday but a warrant was necessary to extend it. The Justice Department and a prison official said he was fine.

“The entire responsibility for the situation rests solely on me,” Kim Yong-hyun said on Tuesday, in a press release carried by his lawyers.

Targeted by an investigation for “rebellion”, Mr. Yoon, 63, is prohibited from leaving the territory, just like his former ministers of Defense and Interior, and the commander of the brief martial law. Two senior police officials were also arrested Wednesday morning, according to the institution.

First reaction from the North

North Korean state media reacted to the situation for the first time. The “shocking act of the puppet Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing impeachment and a governance crisis, suddenly declaring a decree of martial law and without hesitation brandishing the guns and knives of his fascist dictatorship, has sowed seeds chaos throughout South Korea,” they wrote.

Mr. Yoon, constantly defeated by a National Assembly largely aligned with the opposition, had justified his decision to impose martial law by his desire to protect South Korea from “North Korean communist forces” and to “eliminate elements hostile to the State”.

Helicopters and soldiers were deployed to Parliament to prevent MPs from meeting there and voting to lift his decree. But 190 of them managed to enter and unanimously adopt the end of this state of exception.

Roadmap

On Tuesday, a PPP working group proposed a road map on the president’s removal. She envisages the resignation of Yoon Suk Yeol in February or March, with a new presidential election in April or May. This plan has not yet been accepted by the entire party. Even if that were the case, it is unlikely that the opposition would give up trying to unseat Mr. Yoon.

According to the PPP, the president left governance to his party and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. “Despite my continued opposition to the declaration of martial law (…) I ultimately failed to prevent it,” the latter explained in a press release on Wednesday, saying he was “sincerely sorry”.