How do bodyguards prevent South Korean President Yoon from being detained?

South Korea’s Presidential Security Service, an agency charged with protecting the president, prides itself on being “the last bastion of running a safe and stable country.” It is now at the heart of South Korea’s biggest political chaos in decades, serving as a last line of defense to prevent criminal investigators from detaining President Yeon Suk-yul on charges of sedition.

Since his isolation more The declaration of martial law is short-lived Last month, Mr. Yoon was holed up in central Seoul, in a mountain complex now surrounded by bus barricades, razor wire and presidential bodyguards. He has vowed to “fight to the end” to return to office. But the majority of South Koreans, according to polls, want him ousted and arrested, and the court on Tuesday granted investigators a new warrant for his arrest.

The only thing standing between them and Mr. Yoon is the Presidential Security Service, or PSS, which… Forbidden First attempt to serve the note last Friday. When 100 criminal investigators and police officers showed up at his residence, they outnumbered the agency’s employees two to one and stopped them, questioning the legitimacy of the court-issued document. The two sides took turns during the five-and-a-half-hour standoff, before investigators abandoned efforts to arrest Mr. Yoon.

Like the U.S. Secret Service, the SSS protects current and former presidents, presidents-elect, and visiting heads of state. Established in 1963 under former dictator Park Chung-hee, the Preventive Security Service was once one of the most powerful government agencies, with military strongmen relying on their loyalty to escape. Assassination attempts. As South Korea has democratized in recent decades, it has largely retreated into the shadows. But under Mr. Yoon, it began to attract unsavory attention from the public as clientsPull the protesters away During public events.

Mr. Yoon appointed Kim Young-hyun, his most loyal ally, to serve as the first head of the security service before promoting him to defense minister. Although South Korea is currently run by an acting president after Mr. Yoon was suspended from office following his impeachment, the service has sworn to defend Mr. Yoon as he remains the only elected leader.

The security service warned of the possibility of a clash if investigators again tried to arrest Mr. Yoon. The agency includes hundreds of trained bodyguards and anti-terrorism specialists, who are supported by police and army detachments.

Police ordered Park Jong-joon, the head of the security service, to appear for questioning on possible charges of obstruction of justice, which he has so far ignored. They threatened to request an arrest warrant for him if he continued to defy the summons.

“We should not allow people to watch the sorry spectacle of government agencies clashing,” Mr. Park said.

The South Koreans who wanted to arrest Mr. Yoon expressed anger at his refusal to cooperate. Park Chan-dae, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, called Mr. Yoon a coward for hiding behind his presidential guard and trying to “incite civil war and bloodshed.”

“The president’s security service has turned itself into Leon Suk-yul’s private militia,” said Jung Ji-ung, a lawyer and head of the bar association in the populous Gyeonggi Province surrounding Seoul. He added that by rejecting the arrest warrant issued by the court, the security apparatus “placed itself above the judiciary.” The security dispute has added to the confusion that has paralyzed South Korea since Mr. Yoon attempted to impose martial law. Several government agencies are investigating him for rebellion.

The conflict involves police and army forces, which were called in by both sides to provide assistance. Complicating the matter are ongoing legal disputes over who can investigate whom and whose orders must follow in the wake of Mr. Yoon’s impeachment.

Mr. Yoon faces a two-track investigation: one political and the other criminal. The first is by the Constitutional Court, which will begin hearings next week to decide whether to formally remove the president or restore him to office. The second is an unprecedented criminal investigation, the first time officials have attempted to arrest a sitting president.

Investigators want to question Mr. Yoon to determine whether he committed rebellion when he ordered troops to seize the National Assembly and arrest his political opponents.

Mr. Yoon and his lawyers said his declaration of martial law was a legitimate use of presidential power to tame unruly opposition, which hindered his political agenda. They have launched a series of legal challenges against those seeking his arrest.

On Wednesday, Mr. Yoon’s lawyer, Yoon Kap Keun, reiterated that the president would not accept the arrest warrant, but said the president would surrender himself if the court issued a formal and appropriate arrest warrant because he did not want to escalate. Conflict, confusion and division” in the country.

Until recently, government prosecutors typically investigated all politically sensitive criminal cases.

But Mr. Yoon’s liberal predecessor, President Moon Jae-in, created the Corruption Investigation Office for Senior Officials, or CIO, in 2020, taking away some investigative rights from prosecutors. But the role of the new agency has never been clearly defined, and it has fewer resources. Prosecutors have arrested several key figures involved in Mr. Yoon’s ill-fated martial law, including army generals and Mr. Kim, the former Preventive Security Service chief, who was a close accomplice in Mr. Yoon’s martial law decree.

The CIO, who said the mutiny case fell under his jurisdiction, cooperated with police to obtain additional support in a joint investigation. But the office’s resources were so limited that it could only mobilize 20 officials into its operations to detain Mr. Yoon last Friday.

Even with 80 police officers supporting them, they were unable to outrun the security service, which mobilized 200 agents and soldiers, who locked their weapons to form barricades.

Shocked by the embarrassing failure, the Bureau of Investigation and the police regroup. They indicated that if they tried to detain Mr. Yoon again, they would bring in more officials. Some fear a violent clash will occur if neither side backs down.

“We will make comprehensive preparations to achieve our goal in the second attempt,” Oh Dong-hoon, chief prosecutor of the Investigation Bureau, told a parliamentary session on Tuesday.

Some opposition lawmakers are pushing bills to dissolve the security apparatus and replace it with a police security unit.

They view it as a relic from decades ago, when South Korea’s military dictators feared it North Korean killersas well as internal enemies, used presidential security details as bodyguards, and appointed their most trusted allies as their commanders. (When military dictator Park Chung-hee was assassinated by the head of National Intelligence, Kim Jae Kyo(During a drinking party in 1979, Mr. Kim first shot Mr. Park’s chief bodyguard, Cha Chi-chul, whose influence overshadowed that of his own spy agency.)

“The Presidential Security Service is a symbol of the imperial presidency and a legacy of our authoritarian past. We need to prevent it from acting above the law,” said Shin Jang-sik, an opposition lawmaker who helped draft a bill to disband the Presidential Security Service. and act as an agency with absolute authority.