Prosecutors applied for an arrest warrant for Sunghoon Kim, deputy head of the Presidential Security Service, who is accused of obstructing the execution of President Yoon Suk-yeol's arrest warrant. This came after the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office Warrant Review Committee decided that an arrest warrant should be sought against Kim.

According to explanations from police and prosecutors, the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office applied for arrest warrants for Sunghoon Kim, deputy head of the Presidential Security Service, and Kwangwoo Lee, head of the security service, on the 18th. This was just one day after the National Police Agency's Emergency Martial Law Special Investigation Team submitted its fourth arrest warrant application for Kim and its third for Lee.

The arrest warrants are said to include allegations that Kim obstructed the execution of President Yoon's arrest warrant (special obstruction of public duty) and ordered the deletion of secure phone data (abuse of authority under the Presidential Security Act), as well as evidence of retaliatory dismissal of security service officials who cooperated with the arrest warrant.

Reporter Kim Gayoon gayoon@hani.co.kr