On July 6, Special Counsel Cho Eun-seok filed a request for an arrest warrant for former President Yoon Suk-yeol (pictured). The move comes just 18 days after the special counsel investigation began and 17 hours after Yoon’s second round of questioning concluded. It places Yoon at risk of being detained again, four months after his release following a court’s decision on March 8 to cancel his previous detention.

Deputy Special Counsel Park Ji-young said at a briefing that the arrest warrant was filed with the Seoul Central District Court at 5:20 p.m. The 66-page application cites charges including abuse of power, obstruction of official duties, violation of the Presidential Security Act, falsification of official documents, violation of the Presidential Records Management Act, and invalidation of public documents. The special counsel team reportedly believes that pretrial detention is warranted due to the seriousness of the charges and Yoon’s complete denial of the allegations, raising concerns about possible collusion with accomplices and destruction of evidence.

Yoon is accused of ordering the Presidential Security Service to block his arrest during the first attempt by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) in January. He is also suspected of instructing the deletion of secure phone records belonging to Former Defense Counterintelligence Command Chief Yeo In-hyung and others on December 7 of last year, four days after Yoon’s declaration of martial law. These allegations were included in the arrest warrant request filed by the special counsel team on June 24, which the court rejected.

The special counsel team added new charges based on a Cabinet meeting held on December 3 of last year, just before the martial law declaration, alleging that Yoon convened only select ministers and thus violated the policy review rights of those not notified. The request also claims that Yoon abused his power by directing communication staff at the presidential office to justify the martial law to domestic and foreign media. Another charge involves Yoon's alleged involvement in drafting and later destroying a revised martial law declaration, signed by former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, to cover up legal flaws in the original version.

Foreign aggression-related allegations were not included in this arrest warrant. Deputy Counsel Park explained, “The Foreign aggression investigation is ongoing, and there is still a substantial amount of material left to examine.” If Yoon is detained, the investigation is expected to focus on suspicions that he sought to provoke a military response from North Korea through incidents such as drone infiltrations into Pyongyang. However, if the court rejects the arrest warrant, it could significantly weaken the investigation’s momentum.

The court’s pretrial detention hearing is likely to be held as early as July 8. Yoon’s legal team said, “We have sufficiently explained the facts and demonstrated that the accusations are not criminally applicable under the law,” adding, “We will prove in court that this is an excessive and unjustified attempt by the special counsel team to detain Yoon.”