Summary
South Korean investigators attempted to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his December 3 martial law declaration but faced resistance from presidential security and hundreds of pro-Yoon supporters.
Yoon, impeached by parliament on December 14, remains defiant, refusing questioning and denouncing the warrant as illegal.
The standoff has deepened political turmoil, with opposition lawmakers accusing Yoon of inciting rebellion.
His fate depends on the Constitutional Court, which is reviewing his impeachment. The crisis has stalled governance, disrupted markets, and raised tensions around Yoon’s brief military crackdown.
It’s a very weird situation because the presidential security force is required to guard him for life and there’s no “this doesn’t apply if there’s an arrest warrant” protocol in place.
I don’t think anyone is stopping them from guarding him in prison.
You have to get him to prison first. That’s the current issue. His guards won’t allow it.
I get it for the security force. But his lawyers’ official response (and via them, his own official stance on the situation) is to call the whole impeachment and arrest warrant illegal in blatant violation to Korea’s constitutional process. It’s positively Trumpian.
The police should play a game of “who has more firearms” with the presidential security