Korea’s Presidential Security Service vows to harbor fugitive president
The Presidential Security Service said it plans to continue blocking any and all attempts by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) to carry out the arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk-yeol, which is valid until Monday. The PSS is justifying its efforts to hinder the arrest of Yoon on one-sided arguments provided by Yoon’s legal team, which claims that the legality of the execution of the warrant has not yet been confirmed. However, such a claim lost credibility after a court on Sunday shot down an objection by Yoon’s team asking for the court to disallow the CIO’s execution of the warrant for Yoon’s arrest. Park Chong-jun, the head of the PSS, released a statement on Sunday.
“We do not intend to interfere with the law enforcement activities of investigative bodies. While an impeachment motion against Yoon has been passed by the National Assembly, Yoon remains the people’s president and, as such, is receiving appropriate protection as prescribed by law,” he wrote. “The PSS would be neglecting its duties as the body ensuring the absolute safety of the president if it simply acquiesced to the execution of an arrest warrant embroiled in controversy. We ask that the CIO and National Police Agency’s National Office of Investigation work with us to protect the president’s honor and the dignity of our nation,” Park went so far as to add. Park’s argument is that the PSS will continue to block law enforcement agencies’ attempts to carry out the arrest warrant duly issued by a court to apprehend the suspected ringleader of an attempted insurrection based on the claims made by the suspect’s legal team that there are “irregularities” and “illegal” elements of the investigation which have yet to be resolved. However, the Seoul Western District Court revealed on the same day that the objection filed by Yoon’s legal team was dismissed by its 7th criminal law division. This decision means that the search and arrest warrants issued against the impeached president pose no legal issues, contrary to claims by Yoon’s legal team.
The PSS blocked the CIO from placing Yoon under arrest for approximately five and a half hours on Friday, eventually leading the CIO to back down. At the time, the PSS blocked entry into the residence by using buses and military vehicles, and 200 or so PSS agents linked arms to form a human barrier against CIO investigators attempting to gain access to the residence. There are also claims that military forces were employed to secure the area, which the PSS has since denied. After successfully thwarting the effort to arrest the president, the PSS spent the following weekend setting up more vehicle barriers in the road leading to the presidential residence while also installing military-grade barbed wire all around the residence.
