South Korean President Not Arrested After Dramatic Standoff

What Happened?

South Korea’s President, Yoon Suk Yeol, was impeached by the national legislature after South Korean lawmakers overturned his declaration of martial law.

After nullifying the martial law declaration, South Korean legislators then voted to have President Yoon arrested. An arrest warrant was issued and dozens of law enforcement officials went to detain President Yoon, but the officers failed to make an arrest because over one hundred members of the President’s security team prevented police from making the arrest.

After a dramatic standoff in front of the Presidential palace in which police and the presidential security agents, all armed, faced each other directly, police backed down and left without detaining Mr. Yoon.

Why it Matters

The dramatic confrontation between police and presidential security agents is a first for South Korea. A sitting president has never been detained in that country. South Korea has prosecuted five former presidents before, but all those charges were brought after their terms of office had ended.

Such a showdown continues South Korea’s political crisis, which began when President Yoon unexpectedly declared martial law weeks ago.

According to Choe Sang-Hun and Jin Yu Young from Seoul:

‘First, they (police) made it through two blockades formed by parked vehicles and people. Then, when they came within 650 feet of the building where President Yoon Suk Yeol was believed to be holed up, they came face to face with an even more formidable barrier: 10 buses and cars along with 200 elite soldiers and bodyguards belonging to Mr. Yoon’s Presidential Security Service. Small scuffles erupted as the investigators tried in vain to break through and serve a court-issued warrant to take Mr. Yoon away.’

After several hours the outnumbered police left without further incident. 

The fate of Mr. Yoon, who has already been suspended from office, remains uncertain as South Korean courts and legislators will decide what steps to take next after the failed arrest.

South Korea’s Constitutional Court is currently deliberating whether to permanently remove Mr. Yoon from office, though when a decision will be reached and what that outcome will be remains uncertain.

How if Affects You

South Korea, a key U.S. ally in the Asia-Pacific region against both China and North Korea, also recently suffered a major tragedy with the worst commercial air crash in over a decade.

The mood in South Korea is tense, and a majority of the public wants Mr. Yoon removed from office. Though the current political crisis has not yet jeopardized the alliance. North Korea has already been trying to exploit the situation through propaganda, and China has called the situation in South Korea ‘an internal matter.’

Continued protests, both for and against Mr. Yoon, are likely to continue in Seoul until a final outcome becomes clear. Though armed police and security agents have already faced off over the fate of Mr. Yoon, so far South Korea has avoided a violent confrontation.

The fate of Mr. Yoon and how South Koreans respond to it will likely shape the country’s pollical future for years to come.