South Korea's Yoon Shuns Questioning as Security Tightened after Court Rampage

Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
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South Korea's Yoon Shuns Questioning as Security Tightened after Court Rampage

Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
Yoon Kab-keun, lawyer for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, attends a press conference in Seoul on January 9, 2025. (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol refused on Monday to be questioned by investigators under a probe into whether he committed insurrection, as dozens of his supporters faced arrest over a violent rampage on a court building.
Authorities said security was being beefed up at the Seoul Detention Centre where Yoon is being held as a pre-trial inmate and at the Constitutional Court which is holding an impeachment trial to decide whether to permanently remove him from office, Reuters said.
Yoon became the first incumbent South Korean president to be arrested last week over his short-lived declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.
On Sunday, he was formally processed for detention, including having his mugshot taken, after a court approved a warrant, citing concern the suspect could destroy evidence.
Following the midnight ruling, angry Yoon supporters stormed the Seoul Western District Court building early on Sunday destroying property and clashing with police who were at times overpowered by a mob wielding broken barricades to attack them.
Police are planning to arrest 66 people for trespass, obstruction of official duty and assaulting police officers, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Other offenders were still being identified and police will also take legal action against them, acting Justice Minister Kim Seok-woo told a parliament judiciary committee.
Acting President Choi Sang-mok expressed deep regret over the "illegal violence" at the court building and also urged police to enforce the law strictly to prevent a repeat of what happened on Sunday.
LIVESTREAMED INTRUSION
Hundreds of protesters, some blasting fire extinguishers at lines of police, broke through a cordon to enter the court building soon after the 3 a.m. ruling on Sunday to approve the detention of Yoon.
Some of them were seen in video footage roaming halls where the offices of judges were located calling out the name of the judge who approved the warrant.
At least one judge's chamber was broken into by force, Chun Dae-yup, the head of the National Court Administration, said.
Several of those involved livestreamed the intrusion on YouTube, with footage showing protesters trashing the court and chanting Yoon's name. Some streamers were caught by police during their broadcasts.
Yoon's refusal to appear for questioning on Monday at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading the criminal probe, comes after he has repeatedly refused to cooperate with the investigation.
His lawyers have argued that his arrest on Wednesday and the warrant issued for his detention are illegal because they were backed by a court that is in the wrong jurisdiction and the CIO itself has no legal authority to conduct the probe.
Insurrection, the crime that Yoon may be charged with, is one of the few that a South Korean president does not have immunity from and is technically punishable by death. South Korea, however, has not executed anyone in nearly 30 years.
Yoon said through his lawyers that he found Sunday's rampage at the court "shocking and unfortunate", calling on people to express their opinions peacefully.
In the statement, Yoon also said he understood many were feeling "rage and unfairness", asking police to take a tolerant position.



After Taking Office, Trump Pardons 1,500 Jan. 6 Defendants 

A supporter of imprisoned participants of the January 6, 2021 riot on the US Capitol, waves a Trump flag outside the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
A supporter of imprisoned participants of the January 6, 2021 riot on the US Capitol, waves a Trump flag outside the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
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After Taking Office, Trump Pardons 1,500 Jan. 6 Defendants 

A supporter of imprisoned participants of the January 6, 2021 riot on the US Capitol, waves a Trump flag outside the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
A supporter of imprisoned participants of the January 6, 2021 riot on the US Capitol, waves a Trump flag outside the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (AFP)

Donald Trump pardoned about 1,500 of his supporters who attacked the US Capitol four years ago as he moved swiftly to impose his will on the US government just hours after reclaiming the presidency on Monday.

After a day of ceremony, Trump signed a series of executive actions to curb immigration and roll back environmental regulations and diversity initiatives. He did not take immediate action to raise tariffs, a key campaign promise, but said he could impose 25% duties on Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1.

That sent the Mexican peso sliding 1% against the dollar while the Canadian dollar tumbled to a five-year low of C$1.4515.

The news also quickly reversed gains in global stock markets and sent the greenback strongly rebounding across the board in choppy trade.

Trump's decision to pardon supporters who attacked the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is sure to enrage police, lawmakers and others whose lives were put at risk during an unprecedented episode in modern US history.

Roughly 140 police officers were assaulted during the attack, with some sprayed with chemical irritants and others struck with pipes, poles and other weapons. Four people died during the chaos, including a Trump supporter who was shot dead by police.

Trump ordered 14 leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys militant groups, who were serving long prison sentences, released from prison early, but left their convictions intact.

Earlier in the day, Trump, 78, took the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda, where a mob of his supporters had rampaged on Jan. 6 in an unsuccessful attempt to reverse his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

At the ceremony, Trump portrayed himself as a savior chosen by God to rescue a faltering nation. His inauguration amounts to a triumphant return for a political disruptor who survived two assassination attempts and won election despite a criminal conviction and a prosecution stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

"I was saved by God to make America great again," he said.

Trump is the first president in more than a century to win a second term after losing the White House and the first felon to occupy the White House. The oldest president ever to be sworn in, he is backed by Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress.

Trump moved quickly to clamp down on illegal immigration, a signature issue since he first entered politics in 2015.

Shortly after he took the oath of office, US border authorities shut down a program that allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the US legally by scheduling an appointment through a smartphone. Existing appointments were canceled.

Nearly 1,660 Afghans who had been cleared by the US government to resettle in the US, including family members of active-duty US military personnel, were having their flights canceled under a Trump order suspending US refugee programs, a US official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.

BORDER EMERGENCY DECLARED, CLIMATE DEAL NIXED

At the White House, Trump signed an order that declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, which would unlock funding and allow him to dispatch troops there. He signed an order that would end a policy that confers citizenship to those born in the United States, which is certain to trigger a lengthy court fight. Another executive order designated Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

Trump once again withdrew the United States from the Paris climate deal, removing the world's biggest historic emitter from global efforts to fight climate change for the second time in a decade.

"We're getting rid of all the cancer ... caused by the Biden administration," Trump said as he signed a stack of executive orders in the Oval Office.

Other orders revoked Biden administration policies governing artificial intelligence and electric vehicles. He also imposed a freeze on federal hiring and ordered government workers to return to the office, rather than working from home. He also signed paperwork to create a "Department of Government Efficiency," an outside advisory board headed by billionaire Elon Musk that aims to cut large swaths of government spending.

In the State Department, more than a dozen nonpartisan senior diplomats were asked to resign as part of a broader plan to replace nonpartisan civil servants with loyalists.

Trump said on social media his team was in the process of removing over a thousand appointees from the Biden administration.

While Trump sought to portray himself as a peacemaker and unifier during his half-hour speech, his tone was often sharply partisan. He repeated false claims from his campaign that other countries were emptying their prisons into America and voiced familiar grievances over his criminal prosecutions.

With Biden seated nearby, Trump issued a stinging indictment of his predecessor's policies from immigration to foreign affairs.

"We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders, but refuses to defend American borders, or more importantly, its own people," Trump said.

Numerous tech executives who have sought to curry favor with the incoming administration - including the three richest men in the world, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg - had prominent seats on stage, next to cabinet nominees and members of Trump's family.

Trump said he would send astronauts to Mars, prompting Musk - who has long talked about colonizing the planet - to raise his fists.

Trump vowed to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and repeated his intention to take back control of the Panama Canal, one of several foreign policy pronouncements that have caused consternation among US allies.

RETURN TO POWER

Trump took the oath of office to "preserve, protect and defend" the US Constitution at 12:01 p.m. ET (1701 GMT), administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. His vice president, JD Vance, was sworn in just before him.

Outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in November, was seated next to Biden in a section with former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, sat with her husband Bill. Obama's wife, Michelle, chose not to attend.

The ceremony was moved indoors due to the extreme cold gripping much of the country.

Trump skipped Biden's inauguration and has continued to claim falsely that the 2020 election he lost to Biden was rigged.

Biden, in one of his last official acts, pardoned several people whom Trump has threatened with retaliation, including General Mark Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who Trump has suggested should be executed for holding back-channel talks with China. Milley's portrait was removed from the Pentagon shortly after Trump's inauguration.

He also pardoned five family members minutes before leaving office, citing fears that Trump would target them.