By Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL (Reuters) – The person who blocked investigators from arresting ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has himself been thrust into the highlight within the political disaster sparked by South Korea’s transient declaration of martial regulation. Yoon final month.
Park Chong-jun, who studies on to Yoon, was instrumental in Friday’s rejection of investigators’ try and challenge an arrest warrant for Yoon, resulting in a six-hour standoff at Yoon’s official residence. Yoon.
Presidential guards and navy troops blocked authorities from arresting Yoon for alleged revolt below the arrest warrant, legitimate till Monday. The anti-corruption physique main the investigation with police stated on Friday it was learning subsequent steps.
Yoon’s declaration of martial regulation on December 3 surprised South Korea and led to his impeachment and suspension from workplace on December 14. The political destiny of the president is within the palms of the Constitutional Courtroom.
His authorized destiny is fought by a collection of regulation enforcement businesses in opposition to Yoon’s forces – with Park in a central place.
Appointed by Yoon in September, Park had already performed a job in blocking investigators from executing search warrants in opposition to the president’s places of work and residences, citing nationwide safety.
“The Presidential Safety Service exists just for absolutely the safety of the safety goal,” Park stated in a message posted on the service’s web site, including that its mission to guard the president “always” should depart no room for doubt. flaw.
He used this reasoning to reject Friday’s efforts to arrest Yoon on the grounds that investigators had overstepped the bounds of safety legal guidelines and injured some safety personnel.
‘UNCONTROLLABLE’
Critics concern it’s Park’s service that’s extreme.
“The presidential safety service is a harmful establishment whose energy can spiral uncontrolled,” stated Han Seung-whoon, a professor of police administrative regulation at Dongshin College.
“As solely the president has the ability to manage it, the safety companies can abuse their energy and change into the president’s personal military.”
The anti-corruption physique, the Corruption Investigation Workplace (CIO), stated it needed to name off Friday’s tried arrest attributable to fears over the protection of its employees.
Yoon’s safety element and troops below his management outnumbered the officers who made the arrests, the IOC stated. At one level, Yoon’s males banded collectively in a human chain of round 200 individuals to dam entry to Yoon and his official residence, whereas buses and navy automobiles have been additionally used as a blockade.
On Friday, police introduced they might examine Park for potential obstruction of justice, asking him to seem for questioning. He refused in the meanwhile, saying he couldn’t take day off work even for a second at this essential time.
Park and his deputy have been in talks to offer a response to investigators at a later date, the safety companies stated.
The police on Saturday requested his look on Tuesday.
Yoon’s legal professionals say the IOC lacks the authority to research the revolt, making the arrest warrant unlawful.
A court docket on Tuesday permitted the arrest warrant, the primary in opposition to a sitting president, after Yoon ignored repeated summons for questioning.
CONTROVERSIAL HISTORY
Critics of the presidential safety service name it a relic from the times of South Korea’s robust leaders, who dominated till the late Eighties.
It was positioned below the direct management of the president in the course of the period of navy rule within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties, and run by loyal aides who wielded immense energy.
After the 2016 impeachment of then-President Park Geun-hye, lawmakers, calling the service “a creation of authoritarian navy rule,” proposed modifications to switch it to a police company.
They’ve additionally sought to downgrade its chief’s rank, however reform efforts seem to have stalled.
Park’s predecessor within the presidential safety service was Kim Yong-hyun, an in depth ally of Yoon, who left workplace in September when he was named protection minister.
Kim has since resigned from the latter submit and has been indicted on revolt fees, accused of taking part in a key position in recommending and planning the martial regulation try.
The declaration, which Yoon rescinded six hours later when the opposition-controlled parliament defied him, banned all political exercise and sought to manage the media.
Park, a former senior police official who failed in two parliamentary bids in 2012 and 2016, graduated on the high of his class from the Korea Nationwide Police College earlier than changing into deputy chief of the nationwide police in 2011.
In 2012, he helped conservative Park Geun-hye win the presidential election, then turned deputy head of her presidential safety till 2015.
On the time of Park Chong-jun’s appointment as head of the presidential safety service, Yoon’s chief of employees stated he would assist construct “a sophisticated safety system.”
The opposition demanded his arrest for blocking Yoon’s arrest and known as for an investigation into his alleged position in declaring martial regulation.
Beforehand questioned as a witness within the investigation into this assertion, he denied the allegations, in accordance with media studies.
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