South Korea police raid President Yoon’ office over failed martial law
South Korean police raided the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol, a presidential security official said on Wednesday, in a widening investigation into the embattled leader’s failed attempt to impose martial law.
Separately, Kim Yong-hyun, former defence minister and a close confidant of Yoon, attempted suicide at a detention centre where he is held after being arrested, a Justice Ministry official told a parliament hearing.
A presidential security service official confirmed to Reuters that police raided Yoon’s office. The national police agency declined to immediately confirm the search. Yonhap news agency said police investigators presented a search warrant that specified Yoon as the subject.
The raid marks a dramatic escalation of the probe against Yoon and top police and military officers for the surprise Dec. 3 martial law declaration that plunged Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a major U.S. ally into a constitutional crisis.
Yoon was not at the presidential office compound during the raid, Yonhap said. His official residence is at a separate location. He has not been seen in public since apologising on Saturday for trying to impose martial law.
Kim, the former defence minister, was found by guards as he attempted suicide inside a detention centre using his underwear, the justice ministry’s chief of correction services, Shin Yong-hae, told parliament’s justice committee.
He was under observation and his life was not currently in danger, Shin added. Kim has resigned and has been arrested on insurrection charges.
Earlier on Wednesday, the national police chief became the latest top official to be arrested over the martial law declaration, Yonhap news agency said.
Yoon himself is now the subject of a criminal investigation on insurrection charges and is banned from leaving the country, but he has not been arrested or questioned by authorities.
The leadership crisis deepened with questions over who is running the country and the main opposition party planning to hold a second impeachment vote in parliament on Saturday.
Some members of the president’s People Power Party (PPP) have spoken out in favour of the motion, which failed in the first vote on Dec. 7.
“The impeachment train has left the platform. There is going to be no way to stop it,” DP leader Lee Jae-myung said at the start of a party meeting.
