Yoon Kab-keun, a lawyer for South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, announced that Yoon would accept the Constitutional Court’s decision if it decided to remove him from office.
The Constitutional Court is among the highest courts in the country along with the Supreme Court in which their decision cannot be appealed. Yoon has a little more than five months at most before the court passes judgement on him, still it could be sooner.
Previously, President Yoon ignored the court’s request to submit legal briefs before the hearing on December 27, 2024, yet Yoon’s lawyer confirmed that Yoon agreed to appear in person to argue the case. Besides this case, President Yoon also ignored the repeated summons in a separate criminal investigation that alleged him as the mastermind of an insurrection after he declared martial law on December 3, 2024, leading to an issue of his arrest warrant.
Yoon’s lawyer confirms President Yoon still resides in his official residence despite almost being arrested there last week. A top investigator promised to break the blockade formed by Yoon’s supporters and the Presidential security guards to arrest Yoon.
Yoon’s other lawyer, Seok Dong-Hyeon, stated that President Yoon considered this arrest as a politically-driven motive and an attempt to humiliate him. He also warned that it could potentially lead to a civil war between those committed to free democracy and those who are against it.
In addition, Yoon’s lawyer, Yoon Kab-keun, stated that the court that issued the arrest warrant has no jurisdiction, and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) has no authority to investigate a sitting president for insurrection. He added that Yoon would cooperate if the prosecutors indicted him with evidence or requested a formal detention warrant.
As for the situation around Yoon’s residence, it was previously surrounded by hundreds of protesters who supported and opposed him. However, those numbers on Thursday have reduced due to cold weather that has fallen to below minus 10 degrees Celsius, the lowest this winter.
