South Korean authorities have granted a request to extend a warrant to detain the country’s suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning over his surprise declaration of martial law last month.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a new and potentially more robust attempt to arrest him for insurrection after a top investigator vowed to do whatever it takes to break a security blockade and take in the impeached leader.

“South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will accept the decision of the Constitutional Court that is trying parliament’s impeachment case against him, even if it decides to remove the suspended leader from office,” his lawyer said on Thursday (January 9, 2025).

Impeached leader’s security prevent police from executing warrant to detain him for questioning over last month’s martial law decree

Authorities sought on Friday to execute an unprecedented arrest warrant for impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, evading a crowd of protesters but facing off with security forces inside his residence.

A South Korean court on Tuesday approved an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol, the embattled leader who plunged the country into political chaos by his shock decision to declare martial law nearly a month ago.

Yoon Kab-keun, one of the lawyers representing South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, said on Thursday that Yoon was staying in his official residence. The lawyer made the comment in a briefing to reporters following recent speculation over the suspended president's whereabouts.

A prolonged period of uncertainty over the fate of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and a botched attempt to arrest him are giving oxygen to his backers and reviving support for his troubled party.