Why is it difficult to arrest the accused president?

By early Wednesday, 3,000 police officers had arrived at the heavily fortified residence of embattled South Korean President Yun Suk-yeol.

Their mission: arrest him.

Investigators used ladders to scale the buses, dismantled several barriers designed to stop the buses and bolters to cut barbed wire. Others traveled the nearby roads to reach the President’s residence.

They caught him hours later.

This was their second attempt. The first, held earlier this month, saw about 150 officers face a six-hour standoff with the president’s security detail.

They were outnumbered first by Yun supporters who gathered at the gate of their residence to stop the police and then by a human wall inside the property.

In the end, the detectives concluded it was “practically impossible” to catch him – and left.

By many accounts, Yoon is now a disgraced leader – removed from the presidency and suspended, but he A decision by the Constitutional Court is awaited.This can remove him from office.

So why is it so hard to catch him?

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

Legislators voted to indict, then a criminal investigation came and he was not questioned, which would have triggered an arrest warrant.

One key route to the arrested officers was Yon’s presidential security team, which formed a human wall on January 3 and used vehicles to block the officers’ path.

Analysts said they could have been loyal to Yoon and pointed out that Yoon himself appointed several leaders of the Presidential Security Service (PSS).

“It may be that the UN is well prepared for this event by seeding the organization with strong loyalists,” said Christopher Jumin Lee, an American lawyer and Korea expert.

Although Mr Lee believes the group may have been deterred in part by the “extreme display of force by the police”, it is unclear why they reportedly staged a small protest this time.

“At the end of the day, I think they’re unwilling to engage in large-scale assaults on law enforcement officers that full-throated defenses require,” he said.

Earlier this week, the CIO warned the PSS that they could lose their pensions and government jobs by disrupting the arrest.

On the other hand, he confirmed that “those who oppose the illegal order” will not be harmed.

On Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported that several PSS members are either on leave or have chosen to stay in residence.

Apart from security, the right-wing leader also has a strong support base. Some of his fans have already spoken to the BBC. He is ready to die to protect it And Yunus himself has repeatedly floated baseless allegations, including that the country has been infiltrated by pro-North Korean forces.

On January 3, thousands, undaunted by the cold, camped outside the house to stop the arresting team from entering. They wept with joy when they realized the team was giving up.

It was a similar story on Wednesday as a large crowd of supporters of Yoon came out and some clashed with police to stop his arrest.

Some of them cried when they heard that Yun had been arrested.

But the organization that really stands out is the Bureau of Corruption Investigation, which is leading the investigation together with the police.

Questions have been raised about how the first attempt failed to arrest Yoon, with critics accusing it of being ill-prepared and uncoordinated.

The agency was created four years ago by the previous administration, fueled by public anger over former President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment, impeachment and subsequent imprisonment in a corruption scandal.

Mason Richey, an associate professor at Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said this month’s failed attempt was “an additional black eye” for the CIO, which already “doesn’t have a great reputation for political and talent reasons.”

The CIO can count today’s successful arrest as a victory, but it remains to be seen how they handle the investigation in the future, Assoc Prof Richey said.

“A lot of people don’t believe the message about the investigation,” he added.

“We got into this chaos after various organizations rushed to lead the search for their own interests,” said lawyer Lee Chang-min, a member of the Democratic Society Legal Professionals Association.

“Even if the joint investigative body remains, the case should be handed over to the police, who should prove their authority,” he added.

Of course, the CIO does not have the authority to file charges against the UN, and is expected to hand over the case to government prosecutors after the investigation.

Yoon’s lawyers also argue that the COA, as an anti-corruption agency, has no jurisdiction to investigate allegations of corruption against Yoon.

South Korea is now in uncharted territory, with Yoon the first sitting president to be arrested.

Mr Lee said the investigation into him had also “mobilized far-right and populist elements” in the conservative coalition, which could have a “major impact at the top” on the country’s conservative politics.

Additional report on Koh Ewe