January 3, 2025
SEOUL – Some 50 officials of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials and police combined entered President Yoon Suk Yeol’s official residence at around 8:03 a.m. Friday to arrest him on suspicion of insurrection.
They were initially impeded by some 20 presidential bodyguards, who eventually allowed the investigators to enter Yoon’s residence after a standoff lasting less than an hour.
If the joint investigation team — comprising the CIO, police and the Defense Ministry — manage to arrest Yoon on Friday, they will be given 48 hours to question him. To detain him longer, they would need to apply for a new warrant, which would give them 20 additional days.
At around 7:20 a.m., some 150 investigators of the CIO and the police together arrived at the official residence. Vehicles carrying the investigators made its way through to the front of Yoon’s residence, passing through police cordons controlling the road.
Some 2,800 police officers had been dispatched to the streets near Yoon’s residence to control the situation.
The investigators left CIO headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province at 6:14 a.m. for Yoon’s residence.
This came as the Seoul Western District Court on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant effective until Monday against Yoon, who declared martial law and allegedly attempted to arrest his political opponents earlier in December.
On Thursday, as Yoon’s arrest warrant was issued, some 10,000 people rallied near Yoon’s residence as some of the supporters attempted to hamper the authorities’ attempts to arrest Yoon.