Seoul: A special counsel team announced Wednesday that it has filed for a warrant to forcibly bring in former President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning over allegations of election meddling. The move comes as Yoon has defied, for the second time, special counsel Min Joong-ki's summons to appear for questioning.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Yoon was notified by the special counsel to appear at 10 a.m. Wednesday, following his failure to comply with a previous summons. Assistant special counsel Oh Jeong-hee stated during a press briefing that Yoon did not show up and provided no reasons for his absence. Yoon is currently under arrest over his unsuccessful attempt to impose martial law in December. An aide disclosed that health issues, including difficulty moving and sitting, prevented Yoon from complying with the summons on Wednesday.
Should the warrant be issued, the special counsel team plans to dispatch an assistant special counsel and a prosecutor to the Seoul Detention Center, where Yoon is being held, to physically bring him in for questioning. Min's team is investigating corruption allegations involving Yoon's wife, former first lady Kim Keon Hee, which include suspicions of receiving free opinion polls from Myung Tae-kyun, a self-proclaimed power broker. These polls were allegedly received ahead of the 2022 presidential election in exchange for nominating former People Power Party Rep. Kim Young-sun for a parliamentary by-election later that year.
Additionally, Min's team is probing whether Yoon violated election laws by making false statements about his wife's suspected involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme during the 2021 presidential primaries. Legal sources have indicated that Myung has been summoned for questioning as a bribery suspect on Thursday and Friday.