hankyoreh

Former President Yoon Suk-yeol arrives at the Seoul Central District Court on June 23, 2025, for a hearing in his trial on charges of leading an insurrection. (pool photo)

By obtaining an arrest warrant, the special counsel investigating the December 2024 insurrection incident laid the groundwork for a full-fledged reinvestigation of Kim Yong-hyun, who was the second-in-command during the insurrection attempt as minister of national defense at the time.

Although an arrest warrant request for former President Yoon Suk-yeol was rejected by a court, it was announced that he would be summoned for questioning on Saturday.

A criminal division of Seoul Central District Court issued a warrant for Kim on Wednesday, citing “concerns about destruction of evidence.”

On June 18, the team led by special counsel Cho Eun-seok cut short its preparation time and fully launched its investigation, filing additional indictments against Kim on charges of obstruction of official duties by fraudulent means and incitement to destroy evidence. At the time, it requested that a court issue an arrest warrant for him.

Kim, who was already being tried on charges of insurrection, refused the court’s conditional bail as he awaited release on Thursday, when his detention period expired.

Voicing strong objections to the special prosecution team’s warrant request, he effectively obstructed the court’s examination process on Wednesday by issuing no fewer than four challenges against the judge. Ultimately, the court sided with the special prosecution team and its insistence on the need for Kim to be placed in detention during the investigation.

But the court curbed the team’s attempts to make use of compulsory measures during its investigation of Yoon. After police delivered his case with charges of obstruction of the execution of an arrest warrant and deletion of information from an encrypted phone, the team was planning to place Yoon under arrest, citing Yoon’s clear intent to not comply with a summons. The court’s decision to reject the request for an arrest warrant for Yoon means that, for now, it will have to adjust its tempo.

The main factor in the court’s decision appeared to be Yoon’s team stating that he would “actively cooperate with the summons” after the team had already requested an arrest warrant.

Legal world insiders suggested the team may have gotten a bit ahead of itself in requesting an arrest warrant against Yoon out of the gate.

“The arrest warrant request does appear rushed in some respects,” said one attorney and former chief prosecutor, adding that the charges against Yoon “were not the kind that would easily get an arrest warrant issued.”

But the arrest warrant request did appear to work effectively as a tactic for pressuring Yoon into cooperating with the special prosecutor’s investigation.

In announcing the rejection of the arrest warrant request, the team also disclosed the schedule for Yoon’s summons, adding that it would “consider requesting an arrest warrant” if he did not comply.

“The arrest warrant request is meaningful in the sense that it forced Yoon Suk-yeol to comply with the summons for questioning after refusing questioning by investigative institutions numerous times in the past,” one current prosecutor said.

Yoon’s legal team said that it was “shameful and unbecoming of a special counsel to immediately set a summons date and announce it to the media when announcing that the arrest warrant had been rejected.”

At the same time, it asserted that Yoon “intends to comply fairly with the special prosecutors’ summons request.”

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter; Kim Ga-yoon, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]