Following up on reporting by my fellow MNN correspondent @darkdeity.
It was a standoff that lasted 6 hours that everyone watched on TV there, probably like OJ Simpson's slow speed car chase. Except OJ Simpson didn't think he had mystical psychic powers and consult with shamans all the time who told him he could get away with it.
Background: To put this into American terms. Basically the FBI has an arrest warrant for the President. The Secret Service says "we don't care, we protect the President". They tried on Jan 3 and then gave up because, really, wtf do you do in that situation? It's something nobody is prepared for. So they went back and regrouped.
They come back today in overwhelming force. If I'm understanding various reports correctly, they sent in 3,000 cops this time. They forced some kind of Mexican standoff situation where they dared the President's bodyguard to stop them and stared them down. There was real fear that this would end up with shooting. But the bodyguards eventually backed down. I want to imagine somebody doubted the cops' resolve and then one pulled out a .44 Magnum and pointed it at his head and asked "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
It has been reported that veteran personnel of the police's Mobile Detective Unit, Narcotics Investigation Unit and Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit have been dispatched for the warrant execution
Gives you an idea of who this is. It's not a bunch of commies, it's Steve McGarret, Joe Friday, Elliot Ness, Kojak, [insert some morally upright cop from your millenial/zoomer shows, if there are any these days]. They're just trying to enforce the law.
The police are also reportedly considering measures to arrest any individuals who obstruct the team's investigation, including the deputy chief of the PSS Kim Seong-hoon and the head of the Bodyguard Division Lee Kwang-woo who had warrants for their detention issued against them Tuesday night.
Please do.
a bunch of stuff about the 55th Security Brigade
This is the military unit that is the garrison for the capital. Nobody likes to talk about it, but this is what really matters when it comes down to it. They could have easily stopped it but they didn't. Probably because they don't want this insane guy running the country any more than everyone else does. Remember that through the 1980s (I swear it wasn't that long ago, I'm not that old) all power in the country was ultimately based on who could get military units to fight for them. So them sitting this one out is a relief to everyone involved except Yun and his partisans.
Further Reading
I've reported extensively on these topics but if you want some more background:
55th Security Brigade's response to Yun's orders to arrest his political opponents
From 2 years ago during the election why people think that him and his wife are total fricking weirdos.
Why the rightoids are so afraid of communism - because it's real
My last post about this lamenting that the left is apparently just as bad
Seriously tho, just search for "author:redactor0 korea". A variety of material and all of it is gold.
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