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Impeachment Trial of South Korea’s Yoon Adjourned after He Does Not Attend

Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shout slogans during a rally to oppose his impeachment near the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shout slogans during a rally to oppose his impeachment near the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
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Impeachment Trial of South Korea’s Yoon Adjourned after He Does Not Attend

Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shout slogans during a rally to oppose his impeachment near the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shout slogans during a rally to oppose his impeachment near the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)

South Korea's Constitutional Court adjourned the opening session of the impeachment trial of suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol within minutes on Tuesday, after the embattled leader did not attend court.

A lawyer advising Yoon had said the president, who has been holed up in his hillside villa in Seoul for weeks, would not attend, saying a bid by authorities to detain him prevented Yoon from expressing his position at the trial.

The next trial session is scheduled for Thursday and if Yoon also does not attend, the trial proceedings will go ahead with his legal team representing him, acting chief justice Moon Hyung-bae said.

Outside the court, one of Yoon's lawyers Yoon Kab-keun said the president would decide whether to go to the court in person on Thursday after discussions on his defense strategy.

The Constitutional Court must decide within 180 days whether to remove Yoon from office or restore his presidential powers.

Yoon also faces a criminal investigation for alleged insurrection, with authorities seeking to execute an arrest warrant after he ignored summons to appear for questioning.

"A legitimate warrant must exist, and... it must be legally presented and executed," which does not mean "jumping fences or damaging property without presenting a warrant", his lawyer Yoon said, repeating that the current arrest warrant was invalid.

Yoon's declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 that was withdrawn after about six hours has plunged one of Asia's most vibrant democracies into a period of unprecedented political turbulence.

Yoon's chief of staff said on Tuesday that Yoon's office can consult with investigating authorities in order to avoid a clash during the execution of the arrest warrant against Yoon.

Yoon could go to a third location outside of his fortified residence, or a visit to his home could be arranged so that investigating authorities could question Yoon, presidential chief of staff Chung Jin-suk said in a statement on Tuesday.

Investigating authorities, including the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) and the police, have received a re-issued arrest warrant from a South Korean court after their first attempt to detain Yoon for questioning failed after a stand-off with presidential security officers earlier this month.

CIO, the police and Presidential Security Service (PSS) met on Tuesday to discuss the execution of the latest arrest warrant, investigating authorities said in a statement.

At the meeting, police and CIO asked the PSS for cooperation in executing the warrant peacefully and safely, and were awaiting a response.

The defense ministry said on Tuesday that military forces in charge of presidential security would not be mobilized in relation to Yoon's warrant execution.

Amid South Korea's political chaos, North Korea launched several short-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday, coinciding with a visit to Seoul by Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, and less than a week before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

South Korean lawmakers, after being briefed by the National Intelligence Service, said on Monday that the North's recent weapons tests were partly aimed at "showing off its US deterrent assets and drawing Trump's attention".

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Biden’s Departing UN Envoy Says US Rivals Will Fill the Vacuum If Trump Abandons Global Leadership

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 24, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP)
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 24, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP)
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Biden’s Departing UN Envoy Says US Rivals Will Fill the Vacuum If Trump Abandons Global Leadership

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 24, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP)
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 24, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP)

The outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations says she watched America’s leadership diminish in the world during Donald Trump’s first presidency and China fill the vacuum. Linda Thomas-Greenfield is warning that if it happens again during Trump's second term, adversaries will move in anew.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Thomas-Greenfield said during Joe Biden’s presidency, the United States again engaged with the world, rebuilt alliances and reestablished America’s leadership.

"That is the gift that we hand over to the next administration," she said, "and I hope that they will accept that gift in the spirit in which it is being given to them."

Advice to Trump's choice for UN ambassador

In a brief meeting with Trump’s nominee, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, Thomas-Greenfield told her "that the UN is important, and that it is important that we not cede any space to our adversaries."

Those rivals "will change the rules of the road," she warned. "And so, US leadership is extraordinarily important."

In his first term, Trump called the United Nations "just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time." He suspended funding to its health and family planning agencies and withdrew from its cultural and education organization UNESCO and top human rights body. That's raised uncertainty about what's ahead, especially because the United States is the UN's biggest single donor.

Stefanik has called for a "complete reassessment" of US funding for the 193-nation world body, described the UN as a "den of antisemitism" and urged a continued halt to support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.

Of course, the UN isn’t perfect and needs reforms, Thomas-Greenfield said.

But to those who criticize the UN as a big bureaucracy where little gets done or decisions are ignored, she said she always quotes the late former US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright, who said "if it didn’t exist, we would invent it."

Thomas-Greenfield stressed the UN’s importance in dealing with major global issues, from war to humanitarian aid and the need to regulate artificial intelligence.

The United States must stay at the table, she said, "so that we can have influence and work with the entire system to ensure that the system delivers to the world."

The most important table is the horseshoe-shaped one for the 15 members of the UN Security Council, the most powerful UN body, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security.

Thomas-Greenfield said she gave Stefanik the same advice she got — to meet quickly with all of them — including permanent members Russia and China, rivals with veto power.

"She’s going to be sitting around the table with them on almost a daily basis," Thomas-Greenfield said. "So, it’s important to know the individuals you are going to have to engage with, whether they are friends or foes."

The failure to solve global crises

In her final emotional speech to the Security Council, Thomas-Greenfield focused on Sudan, saying she wished there was closure on one crisis the world faces — ticking off Gaza, Ukraine, Congo and other hotspots.

She told AP the UN and the world "have to be more proactive in our engagement" to try to end these conflicts.

Sudan, where nearly two years of fighting has created famine and the world’s worst displacement crisis, is an example "of where as an international community, we could have done more sooner and ended the suffering sooner."

Her focus on Africa Thomas-Greenfield, now 72, started her career as an academic and lived in Liberia, where she first saw US diplomats at work and decided to join the Foreign Service in 1982.

She spent much of her more than 40-year career in Africa, returning to Liberia as ambassador, and rose to be assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2013 to 2017, when Trump took office.

Biden brought her out of retirement to become UN ambassador and a member of his Cabinet.

At the United Nations, she said she’s gained a much broader perspective on Africa’s important place in the world and urged recognition of its immense resources — its people.

"Africa is an extraordinarily young continent," Thomas-Greenfield said. "These young people will be the future of the world."

Using ‘gumbo diplomacy’

At the UN, Thomas-Greenfield harkened back to her Louisiana roots, saying she was going to engage in "gumbo diplomacy" by cooking the state’s famous dish — which mixes up lots of different flavors — for fellow diplomats.

Diplomacy is about bringing together people with different ideas, backgrounds, interests and guidance "and coming up with a solution that we all can live with," she said.

"That’s what I think diplomacy is about. That’s what gumbo is about. So gumbo diplomacy has been very successful," Thomas-Greenfield said, pointing to over 200 UN resolutions adopted during her four years as ambassador, 77 of them drafted by the United States.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "she has connected with people of all backgrounds and beliefs — using her signature ‘gumbo diplomacy,’ always speaking from the head, but also from the heart."

Now, Thomas-Greenfield said she plans to spend time with her grandchildren and work with college students to encourage "the next generation of multilateralists who will be filling the halls of the United Nations."

As a Black woman, she said her advice to young Black men and women is "dream big," and if things don't go your way, look for another tack and "open doors that you hadn't intended to go through."