On Wednesday, January 15, impeached South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested by investigators over his short-lived declaration of martial law last month. He is the first sitting president of the country to be arrested.
Yoon had declared martial law in a sudden move during a national broadcast on December 3. He claimed it was necessary to eradicate “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces.” Yoon had also blamed the parliament for its failure to approve his budget plans and impeach certain officials who, he claimed, were obstructing the functioning of the government. However, his decree was reversed by the parliament in a matter of hours.
The president has been confined to his official residence since December 14, when the parliament finally impeached him and removed all of his powers.
On Wednesday morning, thousands of police personnel arrived at Yoon’s residence and climbed barricades to enter it. A large number of his supporters gathered near the impeached president’s home following the news of Yoon’s possible arrest. It took nearly six hours for police to execute the warrant, Reuters reported.
Yoon was taken to the Corruption Investigation Officer for High Ranking Officials (CIO) headquarters in Gwancheon, Gyeonggi province, where he could be held and interrogated for up to 48 hours.
In a video released prior to him being taken away, Yoon claimed that both the investigation and the warrant for his arrest were illegal but he still volunteered to go with the investigators in order to avoid a clash between the investigators and the presidential security services.
“As the president who must defend the constitution and legal system, responding to this illegal and invalid warrant execution is not an acknowledgment of the CIO authority to investigate the case, but simply a desire to prevent clashes,” Yoon reportedly said.
The investigators’ previous attempt to arrest Yoon on January 3 had failed due to resistance from the presidential security and a large gathering of his supporters.
A short-lived martial law decree
Many different allegations have been made regarding the real motive behind Yoon’s declaration of martial law. Some analysts allege that it may have been the perceived threats to his position after revelations of electoral fraud, mounting popular protests against his policies, and growing opposition from the Democratic Party, which controls the parliament.
The declaration of martial law suspended all political activities including freedom of speech and assembly. This was the first declaration of martial law in the country since the end of military rule in the 1980s.
Read more: Was South Korea’s coup an attempt to restart the Korean War?
The declaration, however, was short-lived as the South Korean parliament voted against it within a few hours, despite Yoon allegedly authorizing the military to use force to enter the parliament.
The decree provoked large-scale popular resentment and protests, with thousands marching to the national parliament shouting against the declaration and calling Yoon a dictator. The protesters prevented the soldiers from arresting parliamentarians and helped them enter the parliament for the crucial vote against the declaration.
Later, an impeachment motion was introduced against Yoon in the South Korean parliament. The move, however, failed due to the lack of required numbers in the parliament after the ruling People’s Power Party (PPP) boycotted the impeachment proceedings.
Yoon was finally impeached on December 14 when out of the 300 members in the parliament 204 voted in favor of the motion. The parliament charged Yoon of trying to obstruct its functioning after his declaration of martial law, arresting several state officials and members of the civil society and attempting to take over the National Election Commission.
Yoon, a conservative leader, won the presidential race in March 2022 with a very thin margin. Since his election, he has been carrying out anti-worker and anti-women policies domestically, and playing a central role in executing Washington’s New Cold War strategy in the region. During his tenure he also pursued a hard line policy against North Korea, undoing any progress that had been made in relations between the two countries in the past.
