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President Yoon snubs prosecutors, fails to appear for questioning over martial law decree

Published: 15 Dec. 2024, 18:50 Updated: 15 Dec. 2024, 20:26

MICHAEL LEE
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President Yoon Suk Yeol makes a public apology in a televised address from the Yongsan presidential office in Seoul on Dec 7. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

President Yoon Suk Yeol failed to appear for questioning by prosecutors on Sunday, a day after the National Assembly passed an impeachment motion against him.

According to the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office, Yoon did not appear for questioning at 10 a.m. despite being sent a summons four days prior.

Prosecutors said they plan to summon the president again shortly.

The same day, the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office announced it had filed arrest warrants against Lt. Gen. Lee Jin-woo, chief of the Army’s Capital Defense Command, and Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-keun, who served as the Army’s special warfare commander until he was suspended in the aftermath of Yoon’s short-lived imposition of martial law on Dec. 3.

Kwak previously told the National Assembly’s Defense Committee that he defied Yoon’s order to have soldiers break down the doors of the legislature and “drag lawmakers out” before they voted to overturn his martial law decree.

Prosecutors later requested an arrest warrant against former Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Park An-su, who briefly served as chief of Yoon’s martial law command before it was disbanded.

Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-keun of the Army Special Warfare Command speaks during a parliamentary Defense Committee meeting at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

The president’s refusal to submit to questioning on Sunday came after multiple sources told the JoongAng Ilbo he is likely to come under even greater scrutiny from investigative agencies after his suspension from his office.

Until now, Yoon’s office has resisted attempts by the police agency’s National Office of Investigation (NOI) to enter the presidential compound to seize documents related to his martial law decree, for which Yoon and his ministers have been accused of plotting insurrection and treason.

When detectives from a dedicated NOI task force previously attempted to raid the compound on Wednesday, Yoon’s office invoked articles 110 and 111 of the Criminal Act to bar their entry.

The law prohibits raids without the consent of authorities in charge of a location that deals with military or official secrets.

The eight-hour standoff ended with investigators leaving after receiving only a few documents from the presidential security service, which an NOI official called “regrettable.”

Now that Yoon has been impeached, the NOI team is expected to file a warrant to obtain records of his communications and summon him for questioning by police as well. The NOI could also file a warrant for his arrest.

The NOI task force could also try to conduct a second raid, given that its original warrant to search the presidential office has not yet expired.

However, it remains unclear if the presidential security service would attempt to block another attempt by the NOI to search the presidential compound on other grounds.

Even after former President Park Geun-hye was impeached in late 2016 over an influence-peddling scandal, prosecutors were unable to execute a search warrant after the Blue House invoked presidential immunity against investigations into crimes she may have committed while in office.

A police official who spoke on condition of anonymity to the JoongAng Ilbo said the prevailing opinion within the NOI is that the investigation will be able to proceed because the charges of insurrection and treason against Yoon fall outside the scope of presidential immunity under the Constitution.

He added that police insiders support filing an arrest warrant against Yoon if he continues to refuse summons for questioning.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]