Rival camps protest in South Korea as authorities push for Yoon’s arrest Politics news

Prosecutors are asking the acting president to order security forces to comply with the arrest warrant issued for deposed leader Yoon.

Thousands of South Korean demonstrators supporting and opposing ousted President Yeon Suk-yul held competing rallies in Seoul, a day after authorities… Failed to execute arrest warrant On the suspended leader for declaring martial law for a short period last month.

Protesters faced off outside the presidential residence and along main roads in the South Korean capital on Saturday, either demanding Yoon’s arrest or demanding that his impeachment be declared invalid.

The widening political divide comes as investigators from the Corruption Investigation Bureau (CIO) of senior officials pressure the country’s interim President Choi Sang-mok to order the Presidential Security Service to comply with an arrest warrant for Yoon.

On Friday, the presidential security service and soldiers prevented prosecutors from arresting Yoon in a six-hour standoff inside the deposed president’s compound. Investigators eventually called off the arrest attempt due to safety concerns.

The confrontation — which reportedly included a stampede, but no shots were fired — left the arrest warrant in limbo, and the court order is set to expire on Monday.

Yoon’s military declaration on December 3 stunned South Korea and led to the issuance of the first arrest warrant for a sitting president, and also provoked… A deep political crisis.

Yoon faces criminal charges of sedition, one of the few crimes not subject to presidential immunity, meaning he could be sentenced to prison, or in the worst case, the death penalty.

His lawyers denounced Friday’s attempted arrest as “illegal and invalid” and said they would take legal action.

Also on Saturday, police asked Park Chung-joon, the head of the presidential security service protecting Yoon, to come in for questioning on Tuesday, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Patrick Phok, Al Jazeera’s correspondent from Seoul, said that the protests on Saturday were peaceful and organised.

“This has been noticeable in many ways, but there is no doubt that frustration among people against President Yoon is growing,” he said.

“And you wonder how long these marches can remain peaceful if the situation continues as it is.”

Yoon’s supporter, Kim Chol Hong, 60, said the arrest of the ousted president could undermine South Korea’s security alliance with the United States and Japan.

“Protecting President Yoon means preserving our country’s security against North Korean threats,” he told AFP.

Meanwhile, members of the Korean Federation of Trade Unions, the largest umbrella federation in South Korea, attempted to march to Yoon’s residence to protest against him, but were prevented by police.

The union said that two of its members were arrested and several others were injured in clashes with police on Saturday.

Investigators could still make another attempt to arrest Yoon before the court order expires on Monday. If an arrest warrant expires, investigators may also apply for another warrant.

The Constitutional Court set January 14 for the start of the trial Yoon’s impeachment trialWhich continues in his absence if he does not attend.