SEOUL: South Korean police are prepared to mobilise “all available equipment” to prevent unrest when a court announces whether it upholds the impeachment of the country’s suspended president, Seoul’s police chief said on Monday (Mar 10).
The Constitutional Court is expected to announce its decision on the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol this month over his declaration of martial law, with both supporters and opponents of the disgraced leader set to gather in Seoul’s streets.
Yoon’s short-lived suspension of civilian rule plunged democratic South Korea into political turmoil and he was detained in a dawn raid in January on insurrection grounds, although released over the weekend on procedural grounds.
His supporters have already stormed a Seoul court once, smashing the doors and windows of a district court in Seoul after a judge there extended Yoon’s detention, and authorities have warned of violence around the impending verdict.
“Clashes in and around the Constitutional Court must be prevented,” said Park Hyun-soo, acting chief of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
“We plan to mobilise all available equipment, including barricades, and designate the area within 100 metres of the Constitutional Court as a protest-free zone, effectively creating a ‘vacuum’ in that space,” Park told reporters at a news conference.
“We must protect the Constitutional Court justices while also preventing conflicts between opposing groups on the impeachment issue.”
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