Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law.
Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week.
After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building.
Photo: AFP
Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an “intolerable illegal and violent incident.”
The incident is the latest episode in South Korea’s spiraling political crisis since Dec. 3 last year, when Yoon declared martial law and dispatched troops to parliament.
His attempt to suspend civilian rule lasted just six hours after lawmakers defied soldiers to vote it down. They later impeached the president, suspending him from duty.
Yoon has vowed to “fight to the end” despite facing a South Korean Constitutional Court ruling on his impeachment and a criminal probe on insurrection charges that has seen him detained.
In announcing investigators could hold Yoon for a further 20 days, the Seoul court said there were concerns he could destroy evidence if released.
The president thanked his supporters — including evangelical Christians and right-wing YouTubers — for their “passionate patriotism” in a message through his lawyers on Friday.
His backers have claimed Yoon was justified in imposing martial law due to election fraud in legislative polls won last year by the opposition, for which they present no evidence.
They frequently wave US flags and have adopted the “stop the steal” rhetoric associated with US president-elect Donald Trump, whose supporters stormed Washington’s Capitol in 2021 to try to overturn his earlier election defeat.
After the Seoul court incident, acting police chief Lee Ho-young said the force would “thoroughly investigate right-wing YouTubers if they were involved in this violent break-in.”
Yoon’s lawyer Seok Dong-hyeon slammed the court decision, while also warning the president’s supporters not to escalate the situation.
“This is likely not what President Yoon desires,” he said in a statement, adding that violence could also “create burdens” for the president’s future trials.
Yoo Jung-hoon, a lawyer and political columnist, said attacking a court was “unprecedented” in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time.
The judge was expected to keep the president in prison “given the myriad evidence supporting the insurrection charges,” Yoo said.
“The court also placed significant weight on Yoon’s attempts to destroy evidence” as a head of state, he added.
With Yoon back behind bars after his court appearance on Saturday, prosecutors are due to formalize a criminal indictment for insurrection.
Yoon, who has refused to answer investigators’ questions, could be jailed for life or executed if found guilty.
Yoon has been absent from the parallel probe at the Constitutional Court, which is considering whether to uphold his impeachment.
If that court rules against him, Yoon would formally lose the presidency and elections would be called within 60 days.
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
Former Chinese ministers of national defense Wei Fenghe(魏鳳和) and Li Shangfu (李尚福) were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the military. The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached the elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Earlier this year they escalated further, resulting in the removal of the top general in
New Zealand is open to expanding its frigate fleet beyond its current two vessels, with New Zealand Minister of Defence Chris Penk saying “no options are off the table” as the government weighs buying new warships from Japan or the UK. The government yesterday said it is looking to replace its two aging Anzac-class frigates, which were both commissioned almost 30 years ago. The UK’s Type 31 and Japan’s Mogami-class warships are the options under consideration. Speaking in an interview, Penk said there is potential to increase the number of frigates the nation purchases. “We need a certain amount of capability as a
The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday said it deployed aircraft to issue radio warnings to a Chinese research ship in a disputed area of the South China Sea “swarming” with vessels from Beijing’s so-called maritime militia. The research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 33 (向陽紅33), which is capable of supporting submersible craft, was operating near a reef in the contested Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which Taiwan also claims, the Philippine Coast Guard said. The Chinese ship was deploying a service boat toward the Spratly’s Iroquois Reef on Wednesday when it was spotted by a coast guard plane, “confirming ongoing unauthorized [marine scientific research]
RSS