Police Reapply for Arrest Warrant of Kim Seonghun, Security Chief, for Blocking Yoon's Arrest

After Prosecution's Rejection and Supplementary Investigation
Third Warrant for Kim Seonghoon, Second for Lee Kwangwoo

The police have re-applied for arrest warrants for Kim Seong-hoon, Deputy Director of the Presidential Security Service, and Lee Kwang-woo, Head of the Security Headquarters.

On the 13th, the police special investigation team announced that they had applied for arrest warrants at the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office for Deputy Director Kim and Head Lee, who are accused of leading the obstruction of President Yoon's arrest (special obstruction of official duties).

Kim Seong-hoon, Deputy Director of the Presidential Security Service. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

They were also charged with abuse of authority under the Act on the Protection of the President, for taking personnel exclusion measures against security service employees who did not follow orders to prevent the arrest.

This is the third arrest warrant application for Deputy Director Kim and the second for Head Lee, both considered hardliners within the Security Service.

Last month on the 24th, the police applied for arrest warrants against Deputy Director Kim and Head Lee on the same charges, but the prosecution requested supplementary investigation and rejected the application.

At that time, the prosecution requested additional investigation regarding the abuse of authority charge under the Presidential Security Act, specifically to verify internal regulations of the Security Service.

The position of Deputy Director Kim's side is that since there is no personnel measure called exclusion from duty within the Security Service, the abuse of authority charge does not hold. They also argue that the employees in question were simply removed from security duties and assigned to work in the office instead.

The police reportedly conducted supplementary investigations on the personnel officer of the Security Service and others as witnesses regarding the exclusion from duty measure.