Representatives from the Police, the Office for High Officials’ Corruption Cases (CIO), and the presidential security service met on Tuesday to coordinate a new attempt to arrest President Yoon Suk-yeol, following a failed attempt earlier this month.

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This meeting comes amid speculation that the anti-corruption office investigating the president, who was ousted due to his brief imposition of martial law, will carry out a new detention attempt this week with the collaboration of the presidential security service.

The first attempt to execute the arrest warrant against Yoon failed on January 3 when presidential security prevented officials from the anti-corruption office and dozens of police officers from accessing the president’s residence in a tense standoff that lasted several hours before the operation was canceled.

The presidential security service agreed to participate in the meeting after receiving a letter from the Police requesting their cooperation and warning of potential legal consequences for any obstruction, including the possibility of losing their status as officials and being sanctioned to prevent them from holding public office again.

South Korean authorities are preparing a new operation to try to arrest the president, which could involve up to 1,000 personnel, after a Seoul court extended the detention order last week. It is believed that Yoon has been hiding in his residence since he was ousted by the National Assembly on December 14.

Following the first failed attempt, presidential security reinforced the area with barbed wire and barricades, lining up buses to hinder access. This has led to speculation about what resources police might deploy in a second operation, including helicopters and armored vehicles.

This reinforcement has also raised concerns about potential physical confrontations between law enforcement, presidential security, and thousands of pro- and anti-president protesters who have been gathering outside his residence for weeks.

The meeting among security bodies coincides with the first formal hearing of the trial in the Constitutional Court to determine whether Yoon’s ousting will be definitive or not concerning his brief declaration of martial law in December. The president is not expected to appear before the court. Yoon’s lawyers have requested a judicial annulment of the arrest warrant, arguing that only the Prosecutor’s Office can request an arrest for an alleged insurrection crime, which is the only crime from which a South Korean president is not immune.

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