President Yoon Suk Yeol became the first South Korean leader to remain in custody for questioning on criminal charges on Wednesday, striking a deal with dozens of law enforcement officials and ending a weeks-long standoff.
The bodyguards of Mr. Yoon successfully prevented investigators from arresting him on Jan. 3, when they made their first attempt to obtain a court-issued arrest warrant. Since then, the country has been gripped by fears of a violent conflict if both sides refuse to back down.
But when the investigators returned on Wednesday with many more police officers, some of them carrying ladders to measure the barriers, Mr. Yoon did not object.
Mr. Yoon will now be questioned by officials investigating his declaration of martial law on December 3. Investigators can now interrogate him for 48 hours and then apply to a separate court to formally arrest him.
The opposition-led National Assembly rushed to vote down the declaration, and accused him of staging a protest by sending soldiers to Parliament to seize the legislature and arrest his political enemies.
At the same time, the Constitutional Court of the country is discussing whether the Parliament’s vote on December 14 to criticize Mr. Yoon was legal and whether he should be legally removed from office.
Police buses began piling up before dawn on Wednesday outside the presidential compound on the hill where Mr. Yoon has been trapped there since he was charged. He was the first South Korean leader to place his country under military rule since the country’s first democratic rule in the late 1980s.
Investigators and police met at the main gate of Mr. Yoon on Wednesday morning. Carrying the ladders to pass the bus barriers that blocked the road, they arrived at the gate where Mr. Yoon, when they arrived they interviewed the president’s bodyguards and lawyers.
Around 8:30 in the morning, Seok Dong-hyeon, a lawyer who works as Mr. Yoon, wrote on Facebook that the president had not been arrested and that his legal team was still discussing with investigators about the possibility that Mr. Yoon worked voluntarily. sending questions.
The investigators were expected to repeat the disagreement that happened on Jan. 3, when they visited for the first time where Mr. Yoon to issue an arrest warrant. Then, they were overtaken by members of the presidential guard and had to make a humiliating coup after a five-and-a-half-hour standoff.
On Wednesday morning, the lawyers of Mr. Yoon, his party’s lawyers and members of the presidential security service stood outside the compound’s gates, as if he and his supporters were preparing to resist new attempts to arrest him. Live footage of the road leading up to his compound in the morning showed a tense atmosphere in sub-freezing temperatures, with jostling and physical fighting at the same time.
Since the effort to arrest Mr. Yoon, his guards reinforced the compound by sending more buses and razor wire to block the gates and walls. Mr. Yoon has vowed to “fight to the end” to return to office and said he will not surrender to court approval that he sees as illegal.
The acting president of South Korea, Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, warned the government agencies involved in the fight against violence.
“All people and the international community are watching this,” he said in a statement. “We cannot tolerate physical violence for any purpose because it will irreparably damage public trust and our international reputation.”
An attempt to take Mr. Yoon and forced him to answer for alleged treason marks the first time in South Korean history that authorities have tried to arrest a sitting president. The events unfolding are all over the country, as news and social media broadcast live. There is a fear of violent conflict if neither side is backing down.
The day before, the Constitutional Court started a trial on whether to strip Mr. Yoon, who did not appear at the trial. His lawyers said he was afraid that the investigators would arrest him if he left the presidential palace.
In a last-ditch effort to issue a warrant, the Presidential Security Service, the government agency tasked with protecting the president and his family, was superior to the Chief Corruption Investigation Office, or CIO, which sought to detain him with the help of the police. It deployed 200 security guards and soldiers to block 100 CIO agents and police.
Jin Yu Young reporting contributed.
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