South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested and interrogated on Wednesday for hours, becoming the first sitting president in the history of this nation to be arrested. The arrest is part of an ongoing criminal insurrection investigation following his impeachment early last December.
Yoon had been under intense scrutiny since the South Korean National Assembly impeached him on December 3, stripping him of his duties after he declared martial law in response to growing political unrest. For weeks, he remained at his hillside residence, surrounded by a heavy security presence that prevented earlier arrest attempts. However, on Wednesday, Yoon voluntarily turned himself in to investigators at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO).
Before his surrender, over 3,000 police officers were deployed to surround the home of Yoon. He later made a brief statement in which he claimed his decision to cooperate with the ongoing investigation, although terming it “illegal,” had been made to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
The arrest comes amidst mounting tensions that included a disturbing instance where an unknown man set himself on fire near the site of investigation. Yoon was taken to the CIO offices without media attention by entering from the back. While Yoon refuses to cooperate with investigators, authorities have 48 hours to interrogate him and then seek an arrest warrant to further detain him.
Yoon’s legal team is filing a challenge on the arrest. They argue that the warrant was wrong in jurisdiction, and the committee did not have the legal mandate to do it. The whole controversy surrounding the impeachment and the arrest of Yoon has deepened the instability in South Korean politics, raising more questions about democracy in the country.
