South Korean president fails to appear before corruption watchdog

SEOUL: South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol failed to appear before the country’s corruption watchdog on Wednesday, it said, after he was summoned for questioning over his martial law bid.

Yoon was stripped of his duties by parliament over the weekend following his short-lived December 3 martial law declaration, which plunged the country into its worst political turmoil in decades.

Investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) had summoned him to their facility in suburban Seoul at 10:00am (0100GMT) for questioning over charges of insurrection and abuse of power.

“President Yoon did not appear for his summons today,” a CIO official told AFP.

Yoon’s legal team said Tuesday he did not commit insurrection and has vowed to fight the charge in court, according to Yonhap news agency.

“While we do not consider the insurrection charges to be legally valid, we will comply with the investigation,” Seok Dong-hyeon of Yoon’s team was quoted as saying.

The CIO said this week that a summons was sent to Yoon but returned “undelivered” after an unidentified person at the presidential office refused to accept it.

Yoon’s no-show on Wednesday “will be considered as a failure to comply with the first summons”, a CIO statement said.

Investigators said they were considering dispatching a second summons, but CIO chief Oh Dong-woon told parliament on Tuesday they were also “reviewing” whether to issue an arrest warrant.

Yoon is being investigated by South Korean prosecutors as well as a joint team of police, defence ministry and anti-corruption investigators.

The Presidential Security Services blocked “the joint investigation team’s attempt to raid a computer server” at the presidential compound, Yonhap news agency said Wednesday.

Yoon and some of his inner circle face possible life imprisonment, or even the death penalty, if found guilty. He remains under an international travel ban.

South Korea’s Constitutional Court, which began proceedings against Yoon on Monday, is separately deliberating whether to uphold his impeachment.

The court on Wednesday ordered Yoon to submit the martial law decree he issued two weeks ago, as well as the records of cabinet meetings held directly before and after the announcement.

The judges have about six months to decide Yoon’s case and a preliminary hearing has been set for December 27, although Yoon is not required to attend.