South Korea's Ministry of Justice on Monday banned President Yun Seok-Yeol from traveling abroad as authorities investigate him for sedition and other charges related to the brief martial law he imposed last week.
Mr. Yoon's martial law order last Tuesday sent special forces into the streets of Seoul, plunging South Korea into political turmoil and causing anxiety among its major diplomatic partners and neighboring countries.
On Saturday, while most members of the ruling party boycotted the parliamentary vote, Yun avoided impeachment charges led by opposition parties. But the opposition vowed this week to bring a new impeachment motion against him.
Bae Sang-up, an official at the Ministry of Justice, said at a National Assembly hearing that the ban on Yoon from leaving the country was made at the request of police, prosecutors, and anti-corruption agencies to expand investigations into the circumstances surrounding Yoon's seizure of power.
On Monday, a senior National Police Agency official told local reporters at a background briefing that police may also detain Yun if the conditions are right.
The contents of the press conference were shared with the Associated Press.
The current president of South Korea is exempt from prosecution while in office, but this does not apply to charges of sedition or treason.
This means that Mr. Yoon could be questioned and detained by the police over martial law, but many officials believe that the police may not be able to arrest him due to the possibility of conflict with the Presidential Security Office. They suspect that they will forcibly detain him and search his office.
In the case of former President Park Geun-hye, who was impeached by Congress and forced out of office in 2017 over a corruption scandal, prosecutors were unable to search her office and presidential officials refused documents, so they ended up having documents taken outside the premises. I decided to receive it.
After refusing to meet with prosecutors while in office, Park was interrogated by prosecutors and arrested after the Constitutional Court approved her impeachment and ruled to remove her from office in March 2017. .
The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, criticized Yoon's imposition of martial law as a “violation of the constitution, an illegal rebellion, or a coup.'' The government has filed police charges against at least nine people, including Yoon and the former defense minister, on suspicion of sedition.
South Korean prosecutors on Sunday detained former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun on suspicion of encouraging Yoon to declare martial law. He became the first person to be detained in a martial law case.
Last week, the Ministry of Defense suspended three military officials individually on suspicion of involvement in the imposition of martial law. They were among those facing sedition allegations raised by the opposition.
On Saturday, Yin apologized for martial law and said he would not shirk legal and political responsibility for the declaration. He said he would leave it to the party to decide the direction through the country's political turmoil, “including issues related to my term in office.”
Since taking office in 2022 for a five-year term, the conservative Yun has clashed almost constantly with his liberal rivals who control parliament.
Liberals launched a fierce political attack on Yoon, filing numerous motions calling for the impeachment of some of Yoon's top officials over a series of scandals involving him and his wife.
In announcing martial law on Tuesday night, Yun called the parliament a “den of criminals” that stalled national politics and vowed to eliminate “shameless North Korean loyalists and anti-national forces.”
Yun's martial law lasted only six hours because the National Assembly rejected it, and his cabinet was forced to lift it in the early hours of Wednesday.
Some members of Yun's ruling People's Power Party voted against his executive order, but the party later decided against impeachment.
Experts say Yun's party fears that if she is impeached and removed from office, as she did after Park was removed, liberals could lose the presidency in a by-election. points out.
Democratic Progressive Party leader Han Dong-hoon said on Sunday that his party would push for Yoon's early and orderly resignation in a way that minimizes social disruption, but he did not say when that would be.
Yun also stated that he would not be involved in national politics, including foreign policy.
Critics say Mr. Han probably wants to buy time so the party can regain public trust.
His comments about keeping Yun out of national politics also sparked widespread concern and criticism that they violate the constitution.
In a press conference on Monday, the Defense Ministry said Yun retains command of the military, a power explicitly reserved to the president by the constitution.
