South Korea’s President Yoon arrested: What happened and what’s next

Former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has been arrested after a dramatic and drawn-out showdown with law enforcement officials.

Police and corruption officers on Wednesday scaled the walls of his residential compound, where he had been holed up for nearly two weeks, evading arrest, after his short-lived declaration of martial law on December 3. The officers broke through the barbed wire and barricades his security personnel had erected.

Hundreds of officers pushed past Yoon’s small army of personal security to take the leader into custody after a court issued a warrant for his detention.

The former president’s imposition of martial law had rattled the country, and he was swiftly impeached and removed from his duties.

Now Yoon faces numerous criminal investigations for insurrection. Here’s everything to know about his arrest:

Who is Yoon Suk-yeol?

Yoon is a storied former prosecutor who led the conservative People Power Party (PPP) to election victory in 2022 despite a lack of political experience.

Before taking the country’s top job, Yoon was called “Mr Clean” for prosecuting an array of prominent businessmen and politicians, analysts told Al Jazeera at the time of his election.

The former leader with affluent roots shot to national fame in 2016 when, as the chief investigator probing then-President Park Geun-hye for corruption, he was asked if he was out for revenge and responded that prosecutors were not gangsters.

While in office, the former president faced challenges in advancing his agenda in an opposition-controlled parliament and was dogged by personal scandals as well as rifts within his own party.

What’s the latest?

After more than 3,000 police officers were mobilised to break into Yoon’s compound, the leader was arrested and taken in for questioning.

“I decided to respond to the CIO’s investigation, despite it being an illegal investigation, to prevent unsavoury bloodshed,” Yoon said in a pre-recorded video statement released shortly after his arrest. He referred to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which is heading the criminal probe.

According to Al Jazeera’s Patrick Fok, reporting from Seoul, this was the second attempt by investigators to bring him in after they tried to arrest him a week ago.

Yoon faces the charge of insurrection, the only one that South Korean presidents are not immune from. His arrest marks the first one of a sitting South Korean president.

What’s the impact of his arrest?

Despite polls showing that a majority of South Koreans disapprove of Yoon’s martial law declaration and support his impeachment, the political standoff has given oxygen to his supporters, and his PPP party has seen a revival in recent weeks.

Support for the PPP stood at 40.8 percent in the latest Realmeter poll, released on Monday, while the main opposition Democratic Party’s support stood at 42.2 percent, a difference that is within the poll’s margin of error and down from a gap of 10.8 percentage points last week.

The narrowed margin suggests that a presidential election could be close if Yoon is formally removed from office by the Constitutional Court examining the legality of his impeachment. Previously, in the days after the brief martial law declaration, the Democratic Party’s leader, Lee Jae-myung, was widely viewed as the firm favourite.

Beyond the political effects, the weeks-long government turmoil has rattled Asia’s fourth largest economy.

Some of Yoon’s supporters have also drawn parallels between him and United States President-elect Donald Trump, echoing claims by Trump that the former and incoming American president has been the target of a witch-hunt by elites who have long controlled the levers of power. South Korea is one of Washington’s key security partners in East Asia.

Who is in charge in South Korea?

South Korea currently has an acting president, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok.

Choi has been in the role since December 27 when the legislature voted to impeach Yoon’s initial successor, Han Duck-soo, over his refusal to immediately fill three vacancies on the Constitutional Court.

Han had been acting president since Yoon was impeached on December 14 over his martial law declaration and his presidential powers were suspended.

After Yoon was arrested, Choi met with diplomats from the Group of Seven nations, including the US, Japan, Britain and Germany, as well as a representative of the European Union to reassure them that the government was stable.

How are South Koreans reacting?

As local broadcasters reported that Yoon’s detention was imminent, the president’s supporters descended upon his residence, chanting, “Stop the steal!” and “”Illegal warrant!” and waving glow sticks alongside South Korean and US flags.

The “stop the steal” slogans referred to Yoon’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud in April’s parliamentary elections, which the opposition won – one of the reasons Yoon gave to justify his martial law declaration. It was also used by Trump and his supporters as he falsely claimed he won the 2020 presidential election in the US.

“Police estimate as many as 6,500 supporters of [the former president] turned out overnight, urging their leader to keep fighting on,” Fok said.

Some of his supporters also lay on the ground outside the residential compound’s main gate.

“It is very sad to see our country falling apart,” Kim Woo-sub, a 70-year-old retiree protesting Yoon’s arrest outside his residence, told the Reuters news agency.

“I still have high expectations for Trump to support our president. Election fraud is something they have in common, but also the US needs South Korea to fight China,” he said.

Minor scuffles broke out between pro-Yoon protesters and police near the residence, according to a witness at the scene quoted by Reuters.

Many other South Koreans are angry and believe Yoon has “avoided facing responsibility for his failed martial law”, Fok said.

“I think it’s wrong for the leader of a rebellion to not face any legal consequences, and even though an arrest warrant has been issued, [he has] continue[d] to resist that,” Cho Sun-ah, an anti-Yoon protester told Al Jazeera.

The Democratic Party, meanwhile, hailed Yoon’s detention with a top official calling it “the first step” to restoring constitutional and legal order.

The country’s parliament speaker echoed those sentiments.

“We should concentrate our efforts on stabilising state affairs and restoring people’s livelihoods,” Woo Won-shik said.

What’s next?

Authorities now have 48 hours to question Yoon, after which they must seek a warrant to detain him on the charge of attempting a rebellion or he will be released.

If Yoon is formally arrested, investigators may extend his detention to 20 days before transferring the case to public prosecutors for indictment.

According to a CIO official, however, Yoon is refusing to talk and has not agreed to have interviews with investigators recorded on video.

Yoon’s lawyers have said his initial arrest warrant is illegal because it was issued by a court in the wrong jurisdiction and the team set up to investigate him had no legal mandate to do so.

Presidential guards were stationed on the CIO floor where Yoon is being questioned, a CIO official said, but he will likely be held at the Seoul Detention Center, where other high-profile South Korean figures, including former President Park and Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y Lee, have also spent time.

Yoon faces the death penalty or life in prison if found guilty of insurrection.

In a parallel investigation, the Constitutional Court on Tuesday launched a trial to rule on parliament’s impeachment of Yoon.

If the court endorses the impeachment, Yoon would finally lose the presidency, and an election would have to be held within 60 days.

The opening session of the trial was adjourned on Tuesday after only a brief hearing as Yoon declined to attend, but proceedings could last for months.

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