Why was it so difficult to arrest an impeached president?

Before dawn on Wednesday, 3,000 police officers arrived at the heavily fortified residence of suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk-yul.

Their mission: to arrest him.

Investigators used ladders to climb buses and bolt cutters to cross barbed wire as they broke through numerous barricades designed to keep them out. Others climbed nearby paths to reach the presidential residence.

Hours later, he was detained for questioning regarding alleged acts of rebellion.

This was their second attempt. The first operation, which took place earlier this month, saw about 150 officers face off in a six-hour stalemate with the president’s guards.

They were helplessly outnumbered, first by the large number of Yoon’s supporters who gathered outside his residence to stop the police, and then by a human wall of security officers inside the property.

Ultimately, investigators concluded that it was “practically impossible” to arrest him – and left.

Many now view Yoon as a disgraced leader – he was impeached and suspended from his presidential duties for trying to impose martial law while he was president. The decision of the Constitutional Court is awaitedWhich may remove him from his position.

Why was his arrest so difficult?

It has been an unprecedented few weeks for South Korea since Yoon’s shocking but short-lived martial law order on December 3.

Lawmakers voted to impeach him, then came the criminal investigation and his refusal to appear for questioning, which led to the issuance of the arrest warrant.

One of the main obstacles to the arresting officers was Leon’s presidential security team, which on January 3 formed a human wall and used vehicles to block the officers’ path.

Analysts said they could have acted out of loyalty to Yoon, pointing to the fact that Yoon himself appointed many of the leaders of the Presidential Security Service (PSS).

“It was likely that Yoon was the one who seeded the organization with hardline loyalists in preparation for precisely this eventuality,” says Christopher Jumin Lee, a US-based lawyer and Korea expert.

It is unclear why they are said to have offered less resistance this time, although Mr Lee believes the team may have been partly deterred by the “overwhelming show of force by the police”.

“Ultimately, I believe they simply were not prepared to engage in the kind of large-scale violence against law enforcement officers that a full defense of Yoon would have required,” he said.

Earlier this week, the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) warned the Preventive Security Service that they risk losing their pensions and civil servant status for obstructing arrest.

In return, she reassured those who “defy illegal orders” to prevent arrest that they “will not face any disadvantages.”

Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday that a number of PSS members were either on leave or had chosen to remain inside the headquarters.

The right-wing leader also has a strong support base. Some of Yoon’s supporters had previously told the BBC that they were Willing to die to protect him and repeated unsubstantiated claims that Yoon himself had been floated, including that the country had been infiltrated by forces loyal to North Korea.

On January 3, thousands of them camped outside his house, undeterred by the freezing temperatures, to prevent the arrest team from moving. They cried with joy when they discovered that the team had surrendered.

It was a similar story on Wednesday, when a large crowd of Yoon’s supporters showed up and some of them aggressively confronted police to stop the arrest.

Some of them cried when they heard about Yoon’s arrest.

But the organization that has really come into the spotlight is the Senior Officials Corruption Investigation Bureau, to give it its full name, which is co-leading the investigation with the police.

There were questions about how the IT director failed to arrest Yoon on his first attempt, with his critics accusing him of being unprepared and lacking in coordination.

The agency was established four years ago by the previous administration, in response to public anger over former President Park Geun-hye who was removed from office and later imprisoned over a corruption scandal.

This month’s failed attempt was “another black eye” for the IT director, who “doesn’t have a good reputation, for political and capacity reasons,” says Mason Ritchie, an associate professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.

Professor Ritchie says IT managers may view today’s successful arrest as a victory, but it remains to be seen how they will handle the investigation in the future.

He adds: “Many people do not trust their messages about the investigation.”

“We got into this mess after various organizations rushed to lead the investigation for their own gain,” says lawyer Lee Chang-min, a member of the activist organization Lawyers for a Democratic Society.

He adds: “Even if the Joint Investigative Body is retained, the case must be handed over to the police, which must assert its authority.”

The CIO does not have the authority to bring charges, and is expected to hand over the case to prosecutors after the investigation.

Despite his name, the IT director has powers broader than corruption. Its duties extend to investigating high-ranking officials in general – for abuse of power. The CIO argued that Yoon abused his power to stage the rebellion.

But Yoon’s lawyers say the CIO is an anti-corruption agency and its powers do not extend to investigating insurgency. They are reportedly considering an appeal to the Supreme Court to test this, according to Yonhap News Agency.

South Korea is now in uncharted territory, with Yoon becoming the first president to be captured in office.

Lee says the investigations into him have “mobilized far-right populist elements” within the Conservative coalition, who may “exert significant influence on” conservative politics in the country in the future.

Additional reporting from Koh Iwi