South Korea probe team seeks new warrant to extend Yoon's arrest

Soo-Hyang Choi, Bloomberg News on Jan 17, 2025

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South Korean investigators sought a new warrant to extend the detention of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his ill-fated martial law declaration following his arrest earlier this week.

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials asked the Seoul Western District Court on Friday for the warrant that would allow investigators to detain Yoon for up to 20 days after the expiration of the initial 48-hour detention period.

It was not immediately clear when the court would hold a hearing to review the request and if the arrested president, now at a detention center near Seoul, would appear before the judge to defend himself. Yoon is the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested.

If the court rejects the warrant request, the embattled president will be released.

Extending the detention period would give investigators more time to try to question Yoon and demonstrate that they have the legitimacy to execute their probe into Yoon on allegations of insurrection. The president has repeatedly questioned the validity of the CIO’s investigation and has refused to answer questions.

On Thursday, a court rejected Yoon’s request to be released following his arrest earlier this week.

“Of course we respect the court decision but it’s regrettable that we could not persuade it on not only the ‘illegality’ but also the ‘injustice’ and ‘inappropriateness’ of the CIO’s arrest of a sitting president on insurrection allegations even by violating the constitution and law,” Seok Dong-hyeon, one of Yoon’s lawyers, said in a text message to reporters following the rejection of Yoon’s request to be released.

As the probe and the separate impeachment proceedings continue, an opinion poll Friday showed support edging up for Yoon’s party.

Yoon shocked the nation and the world by briefly imposing martial law in early December, plunging South Korea into its worst constitutional crisis in decades. He was suspended from his duties after the National Assembly passed a motion to impeach him on Dec. 14.

The Constitutional Court is now deliberating whether to uphold the parliament’s decision and remove him from office. A ruling in favor of impeachment will trigger a presidential election within 60 days.

Yoon was arrested Wednesday when investigators backed by thousands of police officers made their second attempt to bring him into custody for questioning over the martial law decree. The president repeatedly defied earlier summons to appear for questioning.

“Although it’s a bit uncomfortable, I am doing well at the detention center,” Yoon said in a letter released by his lawyer on Friday.

A former star prosecutor, Yoon has been drawing on his own experience to block and delay efforts to investigate him. He was one of the prosecutors who led the probe into former President Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office in 2017 and later imprisoned.

Slowing down progress in the investigation and an impeachment trial may buy time for the ruling party to rebuild support should an election be precipitated by the constitutional crisis.

The support rate for Yoon’s People Power Party rose to 39% in a weekly poll released by Gallup Korea on Friday, up 5 percentage points from the previous survey. That’s higher than the support rate of 36% for the opposition Democratic Party which has been leading the impeachment campaign against Yoon.

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung still has a clear lead among possible candidates to become the next president in an election. But his support edged down for a second straight week to 31% from 32%.

The latest survey showed 57% respondents support Yoon’s impeachment, compared with 36% who said they were against the campaign. The latest poll was conducted among 1,001 respondents across the country and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, Gallup Korea said.

Time is running against Lee. He faces the risk of being ruled out of any presidential election if a conviction over an election law violation is upheld in the coming months.