The joint investigation team led by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials announced Thursday that it had sent a third summons to President Yoon Suk Yeol, requesting that he appear for questioning.
The CIO official said it sent the summons to Yoon -- to the presidential office and to his residence, both via online and the post service -- asking him to appear at the CIO headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
“The third summons was sent a little while ago. We do not know whether the president will comply or defy yet another summons, so nothing is decided for the near future,” the CIO official told The Korea Herald when asked about a possible arrest warrant to proceed in Yoon’s investigation.
According to the investigation team handling Yoon’s alleged abuse of power and insurrection over the imposition of martial law, it had not heard anything from Yoon -- or a representative from his side -- by 6 p.m., and his legal team had not filed a notice of attorney appointment as of Wednesday.
CIO previously issued two separate summonses to Yoon, requesting that he appear for questioning on Dec. 18 and again Wednesday.
Though the most recent summons was sent Dec. 20, the president refused to acknowledge or comply with the order, according to the CIO.
Meanwhile, Rep. Kim Sun-min, the acting leader of the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party, urged the CIO to carry out a speedy investigation.
“The CIO can become a perpetrator which restricts the Republic of Korea from getting back on track and missing its ‘golden time.' This investigation requires swiftness instead of cautiousness,” Kim said in the party’s Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s lawmakers, who are also members of the National Assembly’s legislation committee, visited the CIO headquarters to stage a protest of what they saw as the investigative authority’s passive approach to the investigation on Thursday.
sj_lee@heraldcorp.com
