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After a game of hide and seek, South Korea's president emerges defiant
After a weeks-long game of hide and seek, South Korea's president Yoon Suk Yeol has finally emerged from the shadows. The saga has exposed the nation's political division.
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After a weeks-long game of hide and seek, South Korea's president finally emerged from the shadows.
Suspended, impeached by parliament and wanted by the country's anti-corruption agency, Yoon Suk Yeol is all at once powerless and at the same time singularly driving political chaos that has just entered its seventh week.
He had been holing up in his fortified residence compound, behind a protective contingent of presidential security, ever since the Corruption Investigation Office for High Ranking Officials (CIO) had first sought to arrest him nearly a fortnight ago.
With the previous failed attempt in the back of their mind, the CIO had bolstered its ranks and thousands of police were dispatched to the areas around the presidential compound — 1,200 alone to the residence.
Hundreds of supporters outside the ogovernment building where Yoon Suk Yeol is being detained and questioned. (ABC News: James Oaten )
The officers found alternative ways through the fortifications, some cutting barbed wire, others entering over ladders via nearby hiking trails and climbing across buses that had been parked to block them.
Some hours into this, Mr Yoon's lawyers seemed to waver, pushing to negotiate for his voluntary appearance for questioning.
But the CIO pushed ahead with the arrest, the impeached president having ignored three previous summonses for questioning as part of the investigation.
Eventually he gave in, handing himself over, and painting himself a martyr for doing so.
"I decided to respond to the CIO's investigation — despite it being an illegal investigation — to prevent unsavoury bloodshed," Mr Yoon said in a video statement released after he was arrested.
But after all that the president still refuses to talk, seemingly surrendering only to give investigators the cold shoulder, according to South Korean media reports.
The CIO can detain Mr Yoon for 48 hours — any longer and they'll need another warrant.
In his apology for declaring martial law last month, Mr Yoon said he wouldn't evade any legal or political responsibility — but he continues to insist this investigation is illegal.
He even skipped his first day in court on Tuesday for his separate impeachment trial, his lawyers citing fears for his safety due to the live arrest warrant.
It's hard to imagine what's been going on in Yoon Suk Yeol's mind, isolated for weeks in his home, watching on YouTube his supporters protesting defiantly outside.
The most diehard have been lining the road leading up to his residence, professing to form a human barricade to protect the impeached leader, the Messianic way in which some refer to him no doubt boosting Mr Yoon's resolve to "fight until the end".
"The CIO forcibly arrested our president, violating our constitution," said protester Hong Jeong Sik, who runs a pro-Yoon community group.
"I came here because I couldn't believe what was happening. We should all rise up."
Loading...Even after Mr Yoon's arrest, the demonstrators remained defiant and proud, the crowd moving swiftly to the CIO headquarters where he was taken for questioning.
While his invocation of anti-state forces when he first declared martial law was seen by many as an unsubstantiated distraction from scandals involving both him and his wife, perhaps his paranoia is real, if baseless.
It has certainly struck a chord with his base, many of those demonstrating in support of him speaking openly and passionately of their fears of the communist threat from North Korea and China.
Polls show his popularity has increased in recent weeks, including among young people.
"I was inspired by the older generation guarding the presidential compound," said government worker and protester Park On Yoo.
"The people who were indifferent to politics started to become more aware."
This saga has exposed a deep division in South Korean society, and put the spotlight on what many consider one of Asia's most successful democracies.
For weeks now, hundreds of thousands have been protesting in the streets of Seoul both against and in support of the besieged leader, shutting down huge highways in some cases and causing transport chaos.
Mr Yoon's supporters fly both South Korean and American flags, alongside signs saying 'Stop the Steal', leaning into conspiracy theories that the most recent parliamentary elections were fraudulent.
There is also a deep feeling among his supporters that the charges against Yoon are politically motivated; a witch hunt by some sort of powerful, corrupt deep state.
"The shy guys are now rising up," said protester Kwak Hyun Woo.
"His popularity is going up because we are aware of the real danger of pro North Korean influences."
Protesters participate in a rally calling for Mr Yoon's impeachment in December. (Reuters: Kim Hong-Ji)
It's a far from ideal time for one of the US's most important allies in Asia to be going through such chaos, as president-elect Donald Trump's inauguration approaches.
Mr Yoon had been extremely hawkish on North Korea, and relations had taken a dive since his election, while courting stronger ties with the US and controversially, Japan.
Beyond some small altercations between protesters and police, these demonstrations have remained peaceful, even weeks after the initial shock of Mr Yoon's decision to plunge the country into martial law.
The carnival spirit of the protests, and discipline of those attending, is a huge reassurance among the chaos, because it will be weeks, or even months, until this saga has run its course.
"We support him and want to cheer him up," said protester Hyun Woo.
