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Police target phone lines, internal documents in raid on presidential office, residence

Published: 16 Apr. 2025, 11:30 Updated: 17 Apr. 2025, 15:50

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

The presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul is seen on April 4. [YONHAP]

The police’s martial law special investigation team commenced a raid at the presidential office and presidential residence on Wednesday.

Police aimed to seize former President Yoon Suk Yeol's secure phone line, along with the phone line of Kim Seong-hoon, former acting chief of the Presidential Security Service (PSS), in relation to the charges of obstructing the execution of an arrest warrant on Yoon. Police also began investigations at the PSS office.

“The time the warrant was executed was 10:13 a.m.,” a police official said. “The targets of the raid are the secure phone server-related data and internal documents in the presidential office."

Yoon and Kim are being investigated on charges of obstructing the police's first arrest warrant for Yoon in January. Kim is also accused of ordering the deletion of phone server records, which constitutes an abuse of power under the Presidential Security Service Act.

Police have been trying to secure the phone server of the PSS, which is a key piece of evidence, but have failed due to Kim's refusal to cooperate with raids.

The CCTV footage of the presidential office is also subject to Wednesday's raid in relation to the insurrection charges against former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min.

Lee is suspected of ordering the power and water cuts of major media outlets during the martial law declaration on Dec. 3 last year. On Feb. 18, the police raided Lee’s residence and offices in Seoul and Sejong.

“We recently applied for raid warrants three times to check the CCTV and phone servers of the presidential safe house related to Lee’s insurrection charges, but the prosecution rejected them,” the police said.

By 4 p.m., however, the presidential office and the PSS had yet to comply with the search, resulting in a six-hour impasse. Under Korean law, authorities must obtain consent from the official in charge when attempting to search locations deemed sensitive to national or military secrecy. The PSS reiterated its position, saying that it will "respond in accordance with lawful procedures.”

The PSS has previously blocked all police efforts to obtain evidence at the presidential compound since December, citing national security. That includes repeated denials to search the presidential office, the Cabinet meeting room and an underground bunker in Samcheong-dong in central Seoul. Each attempt resulted in official rejections from the PSS citing “military and administrative confidentiality.”

Historically, investigative bodies have rarely succeeded in executing search warrants against Korea’s top executive offices. In 2012, a special prosecutor probing then-President Lee Myung-bak’s real estate scandal only managed to secure limited documents via voluntary submission. In 2017, during former President Park Geun-hye corruption scandal, special counsel Park Young-soo was blocked from entering the Blue House. And in 2020, prosecutors investigating alleged election interference under former President Moon Jae-in similarly walked away empty-handed.

However, since Yoon was removed from office on April 4, legal experts say the justification for denying access under Articles 110 and 111 of the Criminal Procedure Act may no longer apply. Those clauses allow search denial only when national interests are at stake.

“Even if the search is refused and only voluntary submissions are allowed, we will negotiate with the PSS to obtain meaningful evidence," an official from the police’s martial law special investigation team said.

BY LIM JEONG-WON, NA UN-CHAE [[email protected]]