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FILE PHOTO: Supporters of impeached South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol participate in a rally outside the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, South Korea, January 18, 2025.
Yoon dodges questioning after supporters storm court
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeolrefused to accompany police officers for questioning on Monday, after his supporters stormed a court that approved his continued detention on Sunday. Ninety people were detained during the clash, and other people who participated are being identified for prosecution.
The authorities might not have to search that hard. The rioters livestreamed themselves blasting lines of police with foam from fire extinguishers and entering the courthouse by force. They broke into at least one judge’s chamber during the brief incursion.
Yoon said through his lawyers that he found the rampage “shocking and unfortunate” but that he understood the “rage and unfairness” many Koreans felt. His lawyers have argued that his arrest last Wednesday was illegal and that the court has no jurisdiction in this matter.
Politics are in the most precarious place in years. While impeached, Yoon has still not been formally removed from office, and the long delay has allowed his political allies to consolidate. Elections will be held 60 days after Yoon is formally removed by the Constitutional Court.
In the meantime, markets are suffering through the uncertainty, and the central bank downgraded economic growth forecasts for the coming year to between 1.6% and 1.7%.South Korean President Yoon arrested
Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested by officers from the national corruption authority after an hours-long standoff on Wednesday morning. His detainment comes six weeks after his short-lived imposition of martial law, for which he was impeached and suspended from office, but his final removal is pending a ruling from the Constitutional Court.
Yoon, the first South Korean president to be arrested while technically still in office, was taken via motorcade to a detention center in the suburbs of Seoul. In a statement posted to social media, Yoon said he chose to submit to arrest to avoid violence, but he reportedly refused to answer questions during police interrogation. Police now have less than 48 hours to formally charge him before they must obtain a warrant to continue holding him.
Eurasia Group’s Jeremy Chan says Yoon can’t keep dragging his feet. “Now that he has been removed from his official residence, Yoon will likely be unable to avoid answering the questions of CIO investigators, the Constitutional Court, and parliamentary hearings.”
The arrest blows South Korea further into uncharted waters. When former President Park Geun-hye was impeached in 2017, prosecutors waited for her removal before bringing charges and arrest warrants. South Korean presidents may be arrested for insurrection, which is what Yoon is facing, but otherwise enjoy immunity from prosecution.
Part of the rush has to do with opposition leader Lee Jae-myung’s own legal problems. If the Supreme Court rules against him in corruption cases related to his earlier political positions, he could be barred from standing for president — but if he can force Yoon out and hold elections in time, it renders the issue moot.
Still, Lee is looking like much less of a sure bet than he was in mid-December. His party’s support among voters has fallen from 52% in the beginning of December to 42% in January, barely ahead of Yoon’s party at 40%.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks on the government budget at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, 25 October 2022.
Hard Numbers: Yoon gets a raise, China sets record trade surplus, California Dems are ready for Trump, Ryanair wants drink limits
3: Despite being impeached and having a warrant out for his arrest, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol received his scheduled 3% pay raise on Monday, raising his annual salary to 262.6 million won, or $178,888.
1 trillion: China’s trade surplus reached nearly $1 trillion last year, far outpacing any trade surpluses recorded globally over the past century. But while it’s flooding the world with its products, it’s hardly importing thanks to its lagging domestic economy.
$50 million: California Democrats have reached a $50 million deal to lead a resistance against Donald Trump. The deal will provide funds for the state to challenge the administration in court, to fend off Trump’s mass deportation agenda, and to support legal and immigration nonprofits. Meanwhile, Republicans are criticizing state leaders for focusing on the deal as the state battles devastating wildfires.
2: Ryanair wants European airports to enforce a limit of two drinks per passenger as the budget airline pursues legal action to recover nearly $16,000 in costs related to a plane that had to be redirected mid-flight because of the disruptions of an overly intoxicated passenger last year.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a joint press conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae Yul following their talks in Seoul on Jan. 6, 2025.
South Korean authorities get extension to Yoon arrest warrant
South Korean anti-corruption authorities reached a deal with police to extend their warrant against impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday after failing to arrest him on Friday. A six-hour standoff with presidential security in the official residence amounted to nothing, and the corruption investigators have asked the National Police Agency to take over the responsibility of detaining Yoon. Authorities have not disclosed the new extension's expiration date.
Police are in uncharted waters, however, as no previous South Korean president has been arrested before being removed from office. Yoon was impeached in December, but vacancies on the constitutional court have prevented his official removal. Meanwhile, his party is playing for time – hoping to stall long enough to allow the high court to rule on a case that could render the opposition leader ineligible to run in elections to replace Yoon.
The gridlock is starting to chafe allies, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had expressed “serious concerns” during talks in Seoul with his counterpart on Monday. But Blinken also praised the strong response of South Korean institutions to Yoon’s attempt to seize power through martial law.
North Korea, which has taken a cautious approach thus far amid Seoul’s domestic upheaval, used Blinken’s visit as an opportunity to test a medium-range missile with a supposedly hypersonic capacity. We’re watching how Pyongyang approaches potential provocations once the Biden administration leaves the scene.
Police vans are lined up in front of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's official residence in Seoul on Jan. 3, 2025.
Authorities try to arrest impeached South Korean president
While reports indicated that officers were able to enter the building, they were stopped from executing the warrant by a military unit.
South Korea has sent multiple presidents to jail following their terms — in fact, two of the three presidents immediately before Yoon served time. But this arrest is unorthodox, says Eurasia Groupexpert Jeremy Chan. Usually, presidents have left office, either through impeachment or the end of their terms, before they are investigated on criminal charges.
“Yoon is a former public prosecutor who knows how to use the legal system,” says Chan. “His supporters are also rallying behind his claims that the insurrection investigation is invalid, further complicating efforts to seek his arrest.”
“The urgency with which the investigators have sought a warrant for Yoon's detention has also fed perceptions that politics rather than legal processes are to blame,” Chan adds.
Yoon has not yet been removed by the court because three of its seats were vacant. Former acting President Han Duck-soo refused to confirm their replacements, which led to him being impeached too, and his replacement agreed earlier this week to nominate for two of the three vacancies.
“Yoon will likely live to fight another day,” says Chan. But the Constitutional Court is also holding its second preparatory hearing for Yoon's impeachment trial on Friday. With eight justices, it is only a matter of time before the court rules to uphold the impeachment motion and formally remove Yoon from office.
“Today's standoff will likely only accelerate the urgency with which the court will proceed in making a ruling on the impeachment motion.”
Demonstrators opposing the court's approval of an arrest warrant for impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol protest outside his official residence in Seoul, South Korea, on Dec. 31, 2024.
South Korea calls for arrest of former president
South Korea’s political drama continues into 2025 after the issuance ofan unprecedented arrest warrant against impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol. Yoon ignored three summonses to appear for questioning over the past two weeks on charges of insurrection and abuse of power. The charges stem from Yoon’s short-liveddeclaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, over what he deemed “anti-state forces” and obstructionism by opposition rivals.
Since then, South Korea has impeached two presidents, including Yoon, and threatened to impeach its finance minister, new acting President Choi Sang-mok. But on Tuesday, Choi appointed two justices to the Constitutional Court, making it less likely that he’ll face the chop. Now there are eight sitting justices, and only six are required to uphold Yoon’s impeachment. This, says Eurasia Group regional expert Jeremy Chan, means the ruling will likely be made by March.
The turmoil comes at a fraught time, as the country faces increased belligerence from North Korea, which is growing ever closer to Russia. South Korea is also reeling from Sunday’s Jeju Air crash landing at Muan International Airport, which killed 179 passengers.
What happens now? Yoon has until Jan. 3 to surrender voluntarily, but his legal team says it will challenge the warrant. Yoon’s allies say he will also fight the underlying charges, and his supporters have organized protests against what they call a politically motivated prosecution.
Oh Dong-woon, head of South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, warned that the arrest warrant against Yoon would be executed by Jan. 6, and that anyone seeking to block Yoon’s arrest could be prosecuted.
“Yoon will continue to defend the legitimacy of imposing martial law as a presidential prerogative while fighting against a separate criminal investigation into his actions,” says Chan. “He is nevertheless likely to face a lengthy imprisonment along with the officials who helped him plan and execute the martial law order.”
Han Duck-soo, now the acting South Korean prime minister, gives a speech during the opening ceremony of the AI Global Forum in Seoul, South Korea, on May 22, 2024.
South Korea: Guy who replaced the impeached guy gets impeached
This story gets wilder by the day. On Friday, less than two weeks after President Yoon Suk Yeol was stripped of his duties for attempting to impose martial law, the opposition impeached his successor, Yoon’s fellow People Party member Han Duck-soo.
Why? Yoon’s impeachment becomes official only when confirmed by the Constitutional Court. But at the moment three of the court’s nine seats are vacant, meaning a single dissenting vote would overturn Yoon’s removal.
The opposition Democratic party wanted acting president Han to appoint new justices, but he refused to do so unless it was part of a broader agreement between his party and the opposition. The opposition said this showed he was incapable of “upholding the constitution” and filed papers to impeach him.
Increasing tensions, National Assembly speaker Woo Won-shik announced that only 151 votes were needed to pass the impeachment vote — not 200 like they needed to impeach Yoon.
The measure passed with 192 votes on Friday, but it has prompted protests from ruling party lawmakers who say the impeachment vote was an “abuse of power” — and they, in turn, want the speaker to resign.
Once Han is officially notified by parliament of the impeachment, he will be suspended, and Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok is set to replace him.
So South Korea’s most bizarre and explosive political crisis in decades just got even weirder.
Ukrainian Armed Forces are deployed in the middle of the conflict with Russia on December 16, 2024. Ukraine claims that Russia has begun sending North Korean soldiers en masse to assaults in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces repel daily Russian attacks and control important areas.
North Korea preparing to send more troops to Russia as casualties rise, says Seoul
South Korean military officials said Monday that they had detected North Korean preparations to deploy more troops and weapons to Russia, and elaborated that at least 100 of Pyongyang’s soldiers had been killed and 1,000 more wounded so far, while Ukrainians claim 200 have died and nearly 3,000 had been wounded. If Seoul’s estimates are accurate, that would mean approximately one out of every ten troops dispatched since late October has already taken a wound or died.
The high casualty figures may stem from lack of battlefield experience and modern equipment, as North Korean units embedded with Russian peers attempt to push Ukrainians out of the Kursk region. It isn’t dampening Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s enthusiasm for cooperating with Russia, however, with the South Korean military claiming he has developed new suicide drones to send to the battlefront. US intelligence agencies said Monday that they believe North Korea offered Russia its troops, rather than the request originating in Moscow, in expectation of help with defense technology and political backing on the world stage.
Watch out for a nasty New Year’s gift, too. Seoul says Pyongyang may attempt to test a hypersonic missile in late December or early January. Just ahead of a presidential transition in the US, and with chaos in South Korean politics caused by impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt to impose martial law on Dec. 3, don’t hold your breath for a strong response.