Today's Deadline, South Korean Paspampres Head Installs Agency On President Yoon's Arrest Barrier

Paspampres South Korea while escorting President Yoon. (Instagram/@presidential_security_service)

JAKARTA - The head of the Presidential Security Service Republic of Korea installed a body to ensure that his party would not allow the arrest of the South Korean president who was impeached by Yoon Suk-yeol to be arrested, when the deadline ends today.

Paspampres chief Park Jong-joon said on Sunday he could not cooperate in Yoon's arrest attempt, when an arrest warrant ended on Monday midnight local time, citing legal debates surrounding the warrant as a reason for a lack of cooperation.

"Please don't comment on insulting that the president's security service has been reduced to private service," he said in a statement, adding the agency had given security to all presidents for 60 years, regardless of its political affiliation.

On Friday, Paspampres and military forces 'blocked' criminal investigators from arresting him in a deadlock for six hours.

In Sunday's statement, Park dismissed "unreasonable" accusations by the Democratic Party's main opposition that he had ordered presidential security officers to use live ammunition if they were "wet caught" in Friday's deadlock.

"If the security agency, which puts the president's safety first, complies with the implementation of an arrest warrant against President Yoon, it would be a negligence in the duties and waivers of the president's security," Park said in a statement, quoted by Shine.

Park noted that he would accept any legal responsibility for his possible mistake in his decision to allow his members to confront a group of investigators who stormed the president's residence in downtown Seoul on Friday to continue with President Yoon's arrest warrant.

As a result of the incident, a wave of criticism emerged depicting the security agency as a personal bodyguard, until the call for the security agency had to be disbanded.

The comments came after a Seoul court rejected a complaint from Yoon's lawyer that the arrest warrant was illegal and invalid, Yonhap news agency said.

"It is difficult to assess the validity of any interpretation and legal implementation," said Seok Dong-hyeon, Yoon's lawyer on Facebook.

"If there is an error in the legality of law enforcement against the president who is in office, it will be a big problem," he explained.

Yoon became the first incumbent South Korean president to face arrests for his failed attempts to declare martial law on December 3, sparking political turmoil in Asia's fourth-largest economy and a major US ally.

The conservative president was impeached by parliament and suspended from official duty, while the Constitutional Court will decide whether to return or dismiss him.

President Yoon's lawyer said the warrant was unconstitutional because anti-corruption forces leading his criminal investigation did not have the authority under South Korean law to investigate any cases involving charges of rebellion.

In a statement on Sunday, lawyers threatened to report to prosecutor Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High Officials (CIO) and investigators for what they called an illegal attempt to carry out the warrant, without any authority to do so.

CIO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.