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President Yoon Suk-yeol makes a statement from the presidential office on Dec. 7, 2024, regarding his prior declaration of martial law. (courtesy of the presidential office)

The joint headquarters investigating South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol as an insurrection suspect is preparing for a renewed attempt to execute an arrest warrant against him after having a second one issued.

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) and a special police team investigating Yoon’s declaration of extraordinary martial law on Dec. 3 are planning to attempt Yoon’s arrest in the near future.

On Tuesday, the CIO announced that “an arrest warrant [for Yoon] was issued this afternoon following a renewed request.” The issuance that day granted a request for a second arrest from the Seoul Western District Court after the previous warrant lapsed the day before.

As the police prepare to join the CIO in the effort to arrest Yoon, they also intensified their investigation of Presidential Security Service (PSS) chief Park Chong-jun for obstruction of official duties by service personnel. The police issued a third request for Park to present himself, after he ignored two previous summonses.

Park, who has been booked on charges of obstructing the execution of Yoon’s arrest warrant, refused to comply with a second request for his appearance by the police’s special investigation team on Tuesday.

Many within the police are stressing the need to conduct a compulsory investigation of PSS officials.

One police official said, “Not only has Park Chong-jun ignored two previous requests to present himself, but he has even insisted that obstructing the execution of the CIO’s arrest warrant is legitimate.”

“An arrest warrant can certainly be requested, and he may also be arrested in the act [of obstruction] during the second execution attempt,” they added.

On Sunday, Park signaled his intent to block a second attempt to execute the warrant, stating that it would be “dereliction of duty for the PSS to allow the execution of an arrest warrant that comes amid a debate over illegality and questionable legality.”

Meanwhile, the police are ramping up their investigation of specific acts of arrest warrant execution obstruction by the PSS.

The special investigation team reportedly summoned the head of the 55th Security Group as a witness recently after confirming that ordinary troops with that guard and the 33rd Military Police Security Guard, which are under the command of the PSS, were mobilized to form a “human shield” to thwart Yoon’s arrest on Friday.

The Center for Military Human Rights Korea also said it had received reports from numerous soldiers saying that they had been mobilized to obstruct the arrest warrant’s execution.

Yoon’s camp has argued that it is an “abuse of authority” for the police to involve themselves in the arrest warrant’s execution, but that debate also appears likely to be resolved through the PSS investigation.

A police official said, “Since the investigation of PSS officials has already begun, we are now in a situation where the police will need to be brought out in force to respond to the PSS’s obstruction of special official operations during the execution of the second warrant.”

By Kwak Jin-san, staff reporter

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