CIO braces for first questioning of president

The state anti-corruption investigation office on Friday showed signs that it was preparing to summon and question President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of insurrection over his short-lived Dec. 3 martial law imposition.

The joint investigation team, led by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, has summoned Yoon to attend a questioning session at 10 a.m. on Dec. 25. If Yoon agrees to the summon, scheduled for Christmas Day, he will become the country’s first sitting president to be questioned as a suspect of a crime, in Constitutional history.

On Friday, the CIO sent out a notice to the media requesting them to apply for daily visitor passes and submit and register their vehicles “if they wish a video coverage” of the probe at its headquarters located within the government complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province.

It added that it has designated the areas near the CIO headquarters as a no-parking zone and asked the media to use a separate space prepared for media coverage. The closest areas near the entrance to the CIO headquarters have been designated as a parking space for police and the security service.

While Yoon has been legally suspended from his presidential powers after the National Assembly passed his impeachment motion on Dec. 14, he retains full security and protocol privileges until the Constitutional Court delivers its ruling on whether to uphold the parliament’s decision or reinstate him.

The CIO’s move comes after the prosecution, which had launched a separate investigation into the case, recently decided to transfer the probe to the anti-corruption agency.

A joint investigation team is comprised of the police, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials and the Ministry of Defense's investigative unit has been conducting a probe into charges of insurrection and abuse of power against Yoon and several former and ex-Cabinet members.