South Korean court issues arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol

A South Korean court has approved an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached and suspended from power earlier this month over his decision to impose unconstitutional martial law.

The move comes after the Asian country's law enforcement agencies on Monday sought a court order to arrest the ousted Yoon Suk Yeol. At the same time, probes continue into whether or not the Dec. 3 martial law decree constituted a rebellion.

It is an unprecedented arrest warrant against a sitting president in South Korea. It further complicates the future of Yoon Suk Yeol, who has seen authorities already detain his defense minister, police chief and several military commanders implicated in the attempt to enforce the martial law decree, which was unanimously lifted by Congress just hours after it went into effect.

The Senior Officials Corruption Investigation Bureau, along with police and military authorities, is leading the inquiries into the martial law decree. It confirmed that the warrant requested from the Seoul Western District Court was approved.

The office plans to question the ousted South Korean president on charges of abuse of authority and plotting a rebellion.

Yoon Kap-keun, the president's lawyer, said before the approval that the arrest warrant was invalid and filed a challenge against the court.

According to the AP, the lawyer mentioned that the anti-corruption agency lacked authority to investigate rebellion charges.

"An incumbent president cannot be prosecuted for abuse of power," Kap-keun said. "Of course, there are differing academic opinions on whether a president can be investigated for abuse of power and some assert that investigations are possible. But even when investigations are allowed, the prevailing opinion is that they should be exercised with the utmost restraint."

Ultimately, however, the court sided with the investigators.

At the moment, it is unclear when or how the arrest warrant for Yoon will be executed.

South Korea's presidential security service issued a statement saying it would deal with the arrest warrant in accordance with due process.

The arrest warrant was issued after President Yoon failed to respond to several requests by the joint investigation team to appear for questioning about martial law.