Seoul: South Korea’s police agencies ended their hours long attempt on Wednesday to raid the presidential office as the presidential security service refused to cooperate with their investigation into President Yoon Suk Yeol’s alleged insurrection through his brief imposition of martial law last week.
Instead, Yoon’s office voluntarily submitted ‘very limited’ documents and materials to the police.
A team of 18 investigators arrived at the presidential office compound shortly before noon to search for material related to the martial law decree, including records of a Cabinet meeting held shortly before Yoon announced the order on December 3, according to the National Investigation Office of the National Police Agency (NPA).
As of 4 p.m., however, the investigators had yet to enter the presidential office building as talks were ongoing with the presidential security service over how the raid would be conducted.
A warrant for the search listed Yoon as the suspect, and the president’s office, the Cabinet meeting room, the Presidential Security Service and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) building as subjects of the raid.
The JCS headquarters are located on the same compound, and the martial law command used the basement as its situation room during the six hours that martial law was enforced. Police were attempting to enter the building to seize material related to its operations, Yonhap news agency reported.
Earlier reports said Yoon was not inside the presidential office building at the time of the attempted raid, but it later became unclear as those reports could not be confirmed.
Yoon has been named a suspect on charges of insurrection and mutiny. He has also been barred from leaving the country, becoming the first sitting president to be slapped with an exit ban.
Police suspect Yoon masterminded the alleged insurrection.
Army Special Warfare Commander Lieutenant Genera Kwak Jong-keun told lawmakers Tuesday he was ordered by Yoon to drag out lawmakers from inside the National Assembly building to stop them from repealing the martial law order last week.
Law enforcement officials have also left open the possibility of placing Yoon under emergency arrest without a warrant given the gravity of insurrection, a crime that carries a penalty of up to death.
Police also raided the offices of the NPA, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) and the National Assembly Police Guards on Wednesday.
The search followed the emergency arrests of NPA chief Cho Ji-ho and SMPA chief Kim Bong-sik in the early hours of the day.
(IANS)
