WHO ARE THE SOLDIERS
The Capital Defence Command “is a unit similar to the United Kingdom’s Royal Guard”, Kim Ki-ho, a former army colonel who teaches at Seoul Christian University, told AFP.
The soldiers have a “strict chain of command”, he said, and would have had to obey the PSS and not listen to police and investigators trying to reach Yoon.
“If they are instructed to provide protection, they have no choice but to comply,” Kim said.
WHY IS THE PSS DOING THIS?
Within the PSS, there may be a “strong ultra-conservative ethos”, said Tikhonov.
The PSS itself has a chequered history, enmeshed with South Korea’s authoritarian past. At the peak of its power under military regimes in the 1970s, it wielded enormous power under then-president Park Chung-hee.
Its strength was even a factor in an internal power struggle that culminated with Park’s assassination by his intelligence chief in 1979.
After this, the PSS was largely declawed, but it is still granted sweeping powers by the Presidential Security Act, which allows it to secure a location for the president.
IS THIS ALLOWED?
On Friday, the PSS invoked these sweeping powers when it blocked investigators but experts are questioning if this was actually legal.
Civic groups and opposition politicians immediately filed criminal complaints against PSS chief Park Jong-jun, accusing him of obstructing justice.
Park and his subordinates “committed a completely illegal act and can be subject to punishment for obstructing official duties”, Lim Ji-bong, a constitutional law professor at Sokang University, told AFP.
As PSS chief, Park could also be tried for “abuse of power,” he said, calling blocking the warrant a constitutional violation.
