S. Korea's Yoon faces new arrest attempt

SEOUL — South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol faces a new and potentially more robust attempt to arrest him for insurrection after a top investigator vowed to do whatever it takes to break a security blockade and take in the impeached leader.

Acting president Choi Sangmok urged authorities on Wednesday to "do their best to prevent any injuries to citizens or physical conflict between government agencies" while executing Yoon's arrest warrant.

Protesters supporting and opposing the embattled Yoon braved freezing temperatures to stage rallies on the streets around the presidential compound on Wednesday after a court reissued a warrant on Tuesday to arrest him.

The Presidential Security Service has been fortifying the compound this week with barbed wire and barricades, using buses to block access to the residence, a hillside villa in an upscale district.

Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his failed attempt to impose martial law on Dec 3, a decision that stunned South Korea and prompted the first arrest warrant for a sitting president.

He also faces an impeachment trial in the Constitutional Court.

One of Yoon's lawyers said the president could not accept the execution of the arrest warrant because it was issued by a court in the wrong jurisdiction and the team of investigators formed to probe the incumbent leader had no mandate to do so.

Yoon Kab-keun, the lawyer, also denied suggestions by some members of parliament that Yoon had fled the official residence, saying he had met the president there on Tuesday. He described them as "malicious rumors" intended to slander Yoon.

On Tuesday, Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which is leading the investigation, apologized for failing to arrest the president last week after a six-hour standoff with hundreds of Presidential Security Service agents, some of whom were carrying firearms, and military guards at the compound.

"We'll do our best to accomplish our goal by thoroughly preparing this time with great determination that the second warrant execution will be the last," Oh told a parliamentary committee.

He did not object when members of parliament called for tough action to overpower the presidential guards and military troops inside the compound, but he declined to discuss what options were being considered to achieve that.

Agencies via Xinhua