South Korean Leader Blocks Arrest

Bodyguards stop authorities from detaining Yoon over martial-law decree

- Timothy W. Martin, Soobin Kim and Dasl Yoon

South Korean investigators failed to arrest the country's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, thwarted by his armed Secret Service bodyguards in another tense showdown resulting from his short-lived martial-law decree last month.

Yoon, who is being investigated for insurrection among other charges, has refused three summonses to appear for questioning. He and his lawyers say the legal scrutiny is illegitimate.

On Tuesday, a Seoul court issued a detainment warrant that would bring the 64-year-old leader in front of investigators.

Yoon and his legal-defense team have lambasted the warrant as "illegal and invalid," demanding the issuing judge be investigated. That set the stage for Friday's roughly sixhour standoff at South Korea's presidential residence in Seoul.

Hundreds of Yoon's supporters packed adjacent sidewalks, waving South Korean and U.S.flags and holding signs that read: "Nullify impeachment." At the main gate, a parked security-team bus prevented the investigators' vehicles from entering when they arrived at about 7:20 a.m. It took a team of around 30 investigators nearly three hours to get in. As they marched up to the presidential residence, investigators scuffled several times with Secret Service bodyguards, according to the special unit.