Seoul
\nSouth Korea\u2019s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, failed to appear before the country\u2019s corruption watchdog on Wednesday, it said, after he was summoned for questioning over his attempt to impose martial law.
\nYoon was stripped of his duties by parliament over the weekend after his short-lived 3 December martial law declaration, which plunged the country into its worst political turmoil in decades.
\nInvestigators from the corruption investigation office (CIO) had summoned him to their facility in suburban Seoul at 10am (0100 GMT) for questioning over charges of insurrection and abuse of power.
\n\u201cPresident Yoon did not appear for his summons today,\u201d a CIO official told media.
\nYoon\u2019s legal team said on Tuesday he had not commited insurrection and has vowed to fight the charge in court, according to Yonhap news agency.
\n\u201cWhile we do not consider the insurrection charges to be legally valid, we will comply with the investigation,\u201d Seok Dong-hyeon, of Yoon\u2019s team, was quoted as saying.
\nThe CIO said this week that a summons was sent to Yoon but returned \u201cundelivered\u201d after an unidentified person at the presidential office refused to accept it.
\nYoon\u2019s no-show on Wednesday \u201cwill be considered as a failure to comply with the first summons\u201d, a CIO statement said.
\nInvestigators said they were considering dispatching a second summons, but the CIO chief, Oh Dong-woon, told parliament on Tuesday that they were also reviewing whether to issue an arrest warrant.
\nYoon is being investigated by South Korean prosecutors as well as a joint team of police, defence ministry and anti-corruption investigators.
\nThe president and some of his inner circle face possible life imprisonment, or even the death penalty, if found guilty. He remains under an international travel ban.
\nSouth Korea\u2019s constitutional court, which began proceedings against Yoon on Monday, is separately deliberating whether to uphold his impeachment.
\nThe court on Wednesday ordered Yoon to submit the martial law decree he issued two weeks ago, as well as the records of cabinet meetings held directly before and after the announcement.
\nThe judges have about six months to decide Yoon\u2019s case and a preliminary hearing has been set for 27 December, although Yoon is not required to attend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seoul South Korea\u2019s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, failed to appear before the country\u2019s corruption watchdog on Wednesday, it said, after he was summoned for questioning over his attempt to impose martial law. Yoon was stripped of his duties by parliament over the weekend after his short-lived 3 December martial law declaration, which plunged the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-450288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n