The confrontation began long before dawn. By the time we arrived in the dark, an army of police had repelled angry supporters of arrested President Yoon Suk-yul, who had pitched their tents overnight in hopes of preventing his arrest. Some of the people I spoke to were crying, others were sobbing, because of what they feared would happen.
As dawn broke, the first officers ran to the house, but were immediately thwarted – closed in by a wall of soldiers guarding the compound. Reinforcements arrived but could not help. The doors of Yoon's house remained tightly locked, and his security team refused police officers entry.
The investigators waited for several hours, as the crowds outside grew increasingly agitated, until, after a series of skirmishes between police and security officials, they decided their mission was futile and surrendered.
This is completely uncharted territory for South Korea. It's the first time a sitting president has faced arrest, so there's no rule book to follow, but the current situation is astonishing nonetheless.
When Yoon was impeached three weeks ago, he was presumed to have been stripped of his authority. So for law enforcement officers to attempt to carry out an arrest – for which they have a legal warrant – and then be blocked by Yoon's security team, raises serious and uncomfortable questions about who is in charge here.
Investigating officers said they abandoned efforts to arrest Yoon not only because it seemed impossible, but because they were concerned for their safety. They added that 200 soldiers and security officers linked arms and formed a human wall to block the entrance to the presidential residence, and some of them were carrying weapons.
Getty ImagesThis could be said to be part of Yun's plan, to take advantage of the system he designed himself. Before declaring martial law last month – a plan we now know he had prepared months earlier – he surrounded himself with his close friends and loyalists, and injected them into positions of power.
One of those people is the current head of his security team, who took office in September.
But although this situation is alarming, it is not entirely surprising. Yoon refused to cooperate with the authorities in this investigation, ignoring every request to appear for questioning.
And so things came to this point, where the investigators felt they had no choice but to bring him in by force. Yoon is being investigated for one of the most serious political crimes of all: incitement to rebellion, which is punishable by life imprisonment or death.
Yoon also galvanized his supporters, who have gathered in force outside his residence every day since the arrest warrant was issued. He sent them a letter on New Year's Day thanking them for “working hard” to defend him and the country.
Although most people in South Korea are upset and angry at Yoon's decision to impose martial law, a core group of his supporters have remained loyal to him. Some even camped out overnight, in freezing temperatures, to try to prevent police from reaching his home.
Many told me this morning that they were willing to die to protect Yoon, and repeated the same baseless conspiracy theories put forward by Yoon himself — that last year's election was rigged, and that the country was infiltrated by forces loyal to North Korea. They raised banners reading “Stop the Steal,” a slogan they repeated over and over again.
Attention is now also directed to the acting President of South Korea, Choi Sang-mook, and to what extent his powers extend. Whether he could and should fire the president's security chief and force the team to allow his arrest. The opposition party says police should arrest anyone who stands in their way.
Although investigators have until January 6 to try to arrest again – which is when the arrest warrant expires – they are unlikely to come back without changing their strategy or negotiating with the security team in advance. They will want to avoid repeating today's failure.
They also have to deal with the crowds of Yoon's supporters, who now feel victorious and empowered. They believe that they are largely responsible for the decline of the authorities. “We won, we did it,” they sang all afternoon.
As their confidence grows, so do their numbers, especially as the weekend approaches.
