South Korea’s acting leader accepts resignation of presidential security chief

South Korea's acting leader on Friday accepted the resignation of Park Jong-joon, the head of the presidential security service. This comes after Park faced police questioning over his agency's obstruction last week of law enforcement efforts to detain the impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol. Acting leader and Deputy Prime Minister Choe Sang-mok expressed regret over the conflict between law enforcement and the presidential security service, and called on lawmakers to reach a bipartisan agreement to launch an independent investigation.

The Senior Officials Corruption Investigation Office and police are planning a second attempt to detain Yoon, as they jointly investigate whether his brief martial law declaration on December 3 constituted an attempted insurrection. The presidential security service previously blocked the detention attempt at Yoon's official residence, where he has remained for weeks. It remains unclear what impact Park's resignation and Choe's call for an independent investigation will have on efforts to detain Yoon.

Choe stated, "The government has been deliberating on finding a wise solution, but unfortunately, within our current legal framework, it is difficult to find a clear solution to end the conflict between the two agencies." He was referring to the tension between the anti-corruption office and the presidential security service over Yoon's potential detention. "We urge the ruling and opposition parties to work together to agree on a bill to launch a special prosecutor investigation that is not affected by constitutional issues. This would naturally resolve the current intense standoff."

The main liberal opposition Democratic Party accused Choe of using neutrality as a guise to legitimize Yoon's refusal to comply with a court-issued arrest warrant. “This is equivalent to publicly declaring support for the leader of a rebellion,” said Noh Jong-myeon, a party lawmaker and spokesperson. The Democratic Party and other opposition parties on Thursday introduced a bill calling for an independent investigation into the insurrection allegations against Yoon. A previous opposition-led bill for an independent investigation was scrapped due to objections from Yoon's conservative party members to a clause allowing only the opposition to recommend candidates for special prosecutor.

The conservative party also does not support the new bill, which proposes that the Supreme Court chief justice recommend two candidates to Yoon, who would then choose one to serve as special prosecutor. If Yoon refuses to appoint anyone, the older of the two candidates would automatically assume the role. Park Jong-joon, who ignored two summonses before being questioned on Friday, is accused of obstruction of justice. A week earlier, his forces expelled dozens of anti-corruption investigators and police officers from Yoon's official residence. Park stated that his duty was to protect the president and warned of potential "bloodshed." Critics have said his agency is becoming Yoon's private army.

The embattled president remains holed up in his official residence in Seoul, where the presidential security service has reinforced defenses with razor wire and rows of vehicles blocking the roads. Yoon briefly declared martial law on December 3 and deployed troops to surround the National Assembly, but it lasted only a few hours before lawmakers managed to break through the blockade and vote to rescind it. His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-controlled parliament voted to impeach him on December 14, accusing him of insurrection. His fate now rests with the Constitutional Court, which has begun deliberating on whether to formally remove Yoon from office or reject the charges and reinstate him.

A Seoul court issued a new arrest warrant for Yoon on Tuesday to the anti-corruption agency, after a previous week-long warrant expired. The agency and police have not publicly disclosed the expiry date of the new warrant. Park Jong-joon, speaking to reporters as he arrived for police questioning, again criticized the efforts to detain Yoon, saying the investigation should proceed in a manner "befitting the status of a sitting president" and "national dignity." "Many citizens are surely deeply concerned about the possibility of conflict and confrontation between government agencies," Park said. "I am here today believing that there should be no physical clashes or bloodshed under any circumstances, and hoping to prevent such events."

Park stated that he had made multiple calls to Choe Sang-mok, urging him to coordinate an alternative approach with law enforcement, and made similar requests to Yoon’s lawyers, but received no satisfactory response. The anti-corruption agency has also criticized Choe for refusing to instruct the presidential security service to cooperate with the arrest warrant. After 13 hours of questioning, Park reappeared but declined to answer reporters’ questions about why he had offered his resignation to Choe, before leaving in a vehicle.

While the Presidential Security Act provides for the protection of Yoon, it does not authorize the agency to block a court-ordered detention, and some legal experts have suggested that the presidential security service's actions last week may have been illegal. Asked in parliament on Friday about the presidential security service’s efforts to block the detention, Chun Dae-yup, the head of the National Court Administration, said “Resistance without due cause can constitute a crime, such as obstruction of official duties.” While the president himself enjoys broad immunity from prosecution while in office, this does not apply to charges of insurrection or treason.

Yoon's lawyers have questioned the legality of the new arrest warrant issued for Yoon by the Seoul Western District Court, arguing that the anti-corruption agency lacks the legal authority to investigate the insurrection allegations or order police to detain suspects. They also argued that the detention and search warrants against Yoon cannot be executed at his residence, citing a law that protects sites that may contain military secrets from searches unless consent is given by the person in charge - who is Yoon. Yoon’s lawyers urged the agency to either indict the president or seek a formal arrest warrant, a process that would require a court hearing. However, they said Yoon would only comply with an arrest warrant issued by the Seoul Central District Court, which handles key requests in most high-profile cases.

They accused the agency of deliberately choosing another court because it was said to have a judge favorable to their case, even though the official residence is within the jurisdiction of the Western District Court. There are concerns in Seoul that the political paralysis caused by Yoon's martial law declaration and his impeachment could leave the country vulnerable ahead of Donald Trump's return to the White House. Yoon's office confirmed on Friday a media report that he met with Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and a Trump ally, shortly after his impeachment on December 14, to discuss the political situation in South Korea.