President Yoon's security chief quits as new arrest bid looms

Soo-Hyang Choi, Bloomberg News on Jan 10, 2025

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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s security chief resigned Friday, a week after leading a team that blocked an attempt to arrest the impeached president over his short-lived imposition of martial law.

Park Chong-jun offered to resign earlier in the day as he appeared for police questioning over alleged obstruction of duties last week. His offer was accepted by Acting President Choi Sang-mok. The resignation comes as the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which is leading the probe into Yoon for alleged insurrection, is mulling their next move to take Yoon in custody.

Vice chief of the Presidential Security Service team will serve as an acting leader, a PSS official said. It’s not immediately clear if the vice chief will cooperate with the probe team’s warrant execution. The vice chief has also defied multiple police summons to appear for questioning and has received a third summons to appear before investigators on Saturday, according to Yonhap News.

Arriving at a police station in Seoul, Park said he repeatedly asked Acting President Choi to step in and mediate to avoid a potential clash between government agencies but he did not hear back from the acting president.

“I believe the investigation procedures should take place, taking into account his status as a sitting president,” Park told reporters. “I don’t think the current way of executing the arrest warrant is right.”

Yoon is under investigation following his brief imposition of martial law last month, a move that blindsided the nation and its allies and whipsawed markets. The government blamed the political uncertainty sparked by Yoon as one of the reasons for slashing the economic growth forecasts for 2025.

Yoon’s representatives have said the arrest warrant is invalid and illegal, because the CIO has no legal authority to investigate insurrection charges. The former presidential security chief had said he cannot cooperate with the probe team over the arrest of a sitting president when there’s an ongoing debate over jurisdiction.

Choi on Friday urged rival parties to agree on a special counsel bill to resolve the standoff between the probe team and the security office. “Unfortunately, it’s not easy to find a way to break through the conflict between the two agencies within the framework of our current legal system,” Choi said in a statement.

The CIO did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on Choi’s statement. After the first attempt failed, Oh Dong-woon, head of the investigation agency, had apologized to the public for their failure and vowed to succeed in detaining the president at a second attempt.