South Korea’s ex-defence chief, police heads arrested

Arrests come as main opposition party prepares to make second bid to impeach South Korean president.

South Korea’s former defence minister and the heads of the national and Seoul metropolitan police agencies have been arrested over their alleged involvement in President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law.

Former Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun was arrested on insurrection charges on Wednesday after Seoul Central District Court issued a warrant at the request of prosecutors.

“We considered the degree to which the charges are supported, the gravity of the crime and concerns he will destroy evidence,” the court said in issuing the warrant, the state-funded Yonhap news agency reported.

Cho Ji-ho, the commissioner-general of the Korean National Police Agency, and Kim Bong-sik, the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, were also arrested early on Wednesday on insurrection charges.

Cho and Kim, who were detained without warrant, can be held for up to 48 hours before they are formally arrested.

The arrests come as the main liberal opposition Democratic Party is preparing to make a second bid to impeach Yoon over his brief declaration of martial law, which has plunged Asia’s fourth-largest economy into its biggest political crisis in decades.

The opposition’s initial attempt to impeach Yoon failed after all but three members of Yoon’s People Power Party boycotted the vote at the 300-member National Assembly on Saturday, depriving the motion of the necessary two-thirds quorum.

If a second impeachment motion were to be successful, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo would temporarily assume presidential responsibilities.

The Constitutional Court of Korea would then decide whether to confirm Yoon’s removal from office or restore his powers.

The People Power Party has said that it has secured Yoon’s agreement to stay out of state affairs and resign in an orderly manner in exchange for not supporting his impeachment, an agreement the opposition has likened to a “second coup”.

Yoon, who has also been slapped with an overseas travel ban by prosecutors, is also under criminal investigation for alleged treason.

On Tuesday, the National Assembly passed a bill to appoint an independent special counsel to investigate Yoon and other top officials after the Democratic Party argued that public prosecutors could not be trusted to conduct a proper probe given the president’s former role as the country’s top prosecutor.

Yoon sent shockwaves throughout South Korea when he announced martial law in a late-night televised address on December 3, citing the need to “safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces” and “eliminate antistate elements”.

Yoon later apologised for the decree, which he rescinded within hours after a unanimous vote by the National Assembly, and promised not to shirk legal or political responsibility.