SEOUL: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit South Korea for talks next week, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Friday, with the country mired in political turmoil as its impeached president resists arrest. South Korea is a key security ally for Washington but the country has been wracked by a crisis sparked by President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law decree on December 3. Blinken will meet his counterpart Cho Tae-yul on Monday, Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement. "They are expected to discuss the South Korea-US alliance, South Korea-US-Japan cooperation, North Korea issues and regional and global challenges," the ministry said.
Washington last month said it would "speak out" to South Korea to safeguard democracy after Yoon's bungled declaration. "South Korea's democracy is robust and resilient, and we're going to continue to speak out publicly and engage privately with South Korean counterparts to reinforce the importance of that continuing," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said. Yoon remains South Korea's sitting president but is suspended pending a constitutional court decision over his impeachment. Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok has been installed as the country's acting president and has only been in office for a week.
Meanwhile, South Korean investigators abandoned their attempt to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol at his residence on Friday over a failed martial law bid, citing safety concerns after a standoff with his security team. Yoon, who has already been suspended from duty by lawmakers, would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested if the warrant is carried out. The president, who issued a bungled declaration that shook the vibrant East Asian democracy and briefly lurched it back to the dark days of military rule, faces imprisonment or, at worst, the death penalty.
"Regarding the execution of the arrest warrant today, it was determined that the execution was effectively impossible due to the ongoing standoff," the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), probing Yoon over his martial law decree, said in a statement. "Concern for the safety of personnel on-site led to the decision to halt" the arrest attempt, the statement said of the confrontation with Yoon's presidential security service and its military unit. Around 20 investigators and 80 police officers were heavily outnumbered by around 200 soldiers and security personnel linking arms to block their way after entering the presidential compound, a CIO official told a briefing. "I understand there were minor and major physical altercations," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding that buses and cars were also parked to block their way. Negotiations between the two sides ultimately faltered and the investigators decided to leave for their team's safety, although another execution of the warrant could take place after a review, the official said.
The deadline for the warrant is on Monday, leaving it in limbo with just a few days remaining and Yoon defiant, vowing this week to "fight" authorities trying to question him.
Yoon's security service — which still protects him as the country's sitting head of state — has previously blocked attempted police raids of the presidential office. The president himself has ignored three rounds of summons from investigators, prompting them to seek the warrant. Yoon's legal team — who raced to the residence and whom AFP saw were allowed inside — said police had no right to execute the warrant at a "first-class military secret protection facility". "We express deep regret regarding today's unlawful and invalid execution of arrest and search warrants," the president's lawyer Yoon Kab-keun said in a statement. — AFP
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