South Korean leader avoids trial while trying to delay arrest

South Korea’s Constitutional Court began formal deliberations on Tuesday to decide whether or not to oust President Yoon Suk-yeol. The ousted president has stayed away, holed up in his fortified presidential compound as he prepares for what aides have described as a “siege attack” from up to 1,000 criminal investigators who plan to detain him on sedition charges.

Mr. Yoon has been suspended from office since he was impeached by the National Assembly on December 14 for briefly imposing martial law 11 days earlier. But he refused to step down. Instead, he vowed to “fight to the end” to regain power through a trial before the Constitutional Court, and has resisted demands that he be questioned by officials conducting a separate investigation into the rebellion accusations.

Continued efforts to hold Mr. Yoon accountable for declaring military rule and his refusal to cooperate with all investigations to date have left South Korea in a political limbo, sowing doubts about the resilience of its decades-old democracy.

Constitutional Court Mr. Yoon has the sole authority to decide whether a parliamentary impeachment is legitimate and whether Mr. Yoon should be formally removed or reinstated. Small, rival groups of citizens engaged in shouting matches across the narrow street in front of the court on Tuesday as the first session opened. The wall surrounding the court was covered in flowers sent by Mr. Yoon’s supporters.

But Mr. Yoon did not show up: his lawyers said he feared rebellion investigators would arrest him if he left his presidential compound. The court adjourned after four minutes on Tuesday when it found Mr. Yoon absent. She said she would resume her deliberations on Thursday, where she could proceed with or without him.

The court hearing plays a secondary role in the drama surrounding the criminal investigation. When investigators first visited Mr. Yoon’s home on January 3 to execute the arrest warrant, his bodyguards blocked their path with cars and buses and formed human chains. The investigators withdrew, vowing to return with more officials.

Tensions over the property – and fears of a possible clash between the president’s bodyguards and police – have worsened in the past two weeks. Presidential Security Service for Mr. Yoon He turned the mountain complex in central Seoul into a fortress, deploying more buses and coils of barbed wire to close its gates and walls. Meanwhile, insurgent investigators and police were working on a detailed plan on how to breach the barricades and take Mr. Yoon into custody the next time they tried to execute the arrest warrant.

On Tuesday, Mr. Yoon’s chief of presidential staff, Chung Jin-sook, likened Mr. Yoon to a beleaguered leader who “stayed isolated in a castle, with no one to help him, while the sun was setting.”

“They have completed their preparations to launch the siege attack,” said Zhong, a journalist and former lawmaker, referring to police and investigators.

In the first failed attempt to detain Mr. Yoon, about 100 prosecutors, investigators and police officers visited his residence but were outnumbered by the president’s bodyguards and soldiers two to one. In their second attempt, police officials said they are making plans to deploy 1,000 officers, including those who specialize in arresting drug cartels and other organized crime syndicates.

Investigators and police met with officials from Mr. Yoon’s Presidential Security Service on Tuesday to discuss how to resolve the crisis. But there was no immediate sign of a solution.

Mr. Yoon’s aides are trying to prevent him from facing the humiliation of becoming the first president detained by his own law enforcement agencies, which will take him to their headquarters south of the city.

His lawyers objected to the legality of the court’s order to arrest him. They proposed instead that investigators question Mr. Yoon at his residence or a neutral location while allowing him to appear before the Constitutional Court and answer separate charges of rebellion as a free man.

But most South Koreans want Mr. Yoon arrested and ousted, according to polls.

Mr. Yoon’s last line of defense — the Presidential Security Service — is beginning to show cracks: Its chief, Park Jong-joon, resigned last week before he could present himself to police for questioning about whether he had committed obstruction of justice when his agency blocked investigators from carrying out a court order. .

The agency said on Monday that it had suspended one of its senior officials after the official met secretly with police officers. The official was accused of cooperating with the police by sharing information about the presidential complex, including its design. But the agency said it did not punish anyone for “expressing their opinions” during internal meetings, indicating that there was a heated debate among the presidential guard over whether it was right for them to prevent fellow government officials from executing the arrest warrant.

The Presidential Security Service is supported by police and army detachments.

The police and army said they did not want to drag in their soldiers and police officers to help prevent Mr. Yoon’s arrest.

On Monday, Lee Jae-myung, the main opposition leader, urged Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, the country’s unelected interim president, to prevent the president’s bodyguards from preventing officials from carrying out the court’s arrest warrant. But Mr. Choi refused to take sides, urging investigators and the presidential guard to settle their dispute peacefully, rather than through “violent means.”