South Korea police raid Yoon's office over martial law as ousted minister attempts suicide

SEOUL, Dec 11 (Reuters) — South Korean police raided President Yoon Suk Yeol's office on Wednesday and one of his top lieutenants has tried to take his own life, officials said, amid a widening investigation into the U.S. ally's decision to declare martial law last week.

The raid marks a dramatic escalation of the probe against Yoon and top police and military officers over the surprise Dec. 3 martial law declaration that plunged Asia's fourth-largest economy into a constitutional crisis.

The defence minister at the time, Kim Yong-hyun, a close confidant of Yoon, attempted suicide using a shirt and underwear at a detention centre where he is being held following his arrest on Sunday, a Justice Ministry official told parliament.

He was now under observation and his life was not currently in danger, the official added.

Kim has resigned and apologised for his part in the short-lived imposition of emergency rule, saying he alone was responsible.

Soon after Yoon's surprise late-night declaration of martial law, lawmakers including some members of his own party voted to demand the president immediately rescind the order, which he did hours later.

REVIEWING ARREST

Yoon is now the subject of a criminal investigation into insurrection allegations and is banned from leaving the country, but he has not been arrested or questioned by authorities.

The president, who has not been seen in public since Saturday, was absent during the police raid on this office. The raid was confirmed to Reuters by a presidential security service official. Police declined to immediately comment.

Yonhap news agency said police investigators presented a search warrant that specified Yoon as the subject.

Oh Dong-woon, the head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials and one of the agencies now investigating the martial law debacle, said his office was "willing" to arrest Yoon if required.

Earlier on Wednesday, national police chief Cho Ji-ho became the latest top official to be arrested, accused of deploying police to block lawmakers from entering parliament, Yonhap news agency said.

Calls for Yoon's arrest grew after top military officers said he had ordered troops to enter parliament on Dec. 3 and stop lawmakers from voting to reject martial law.

Kwak Jong-geun, the commander of the Army Special Warfare Command, told a parliament committee on Tuesday that Yoon had ordered troops to "break the door down right now and get in there and drag out" lawmakers.

Yoon's then-defence minister, Kim, has also been accused by military officers of issuing the same order.

LEADERSHIP CRISIS

With Yoon's grip on power looking more precarious by the day, the leadership crisis deepened amid questions over who is running the country. Yoon's office said on Tuesday it had "no official position" when asked who was in charge.

The leader of the president's People Power Party (PPP) said Prime Minister Han Duck-soo would manage state affairs while the party looked for an "orderly" way for the president to resign.

The constitutional legitimacy of that arrangement has been questioned by opposition parties and some legal scholars.

The opposition Democratic Party (DP) said it plans to introduce a new bill to impeach Yoon on Wednesday with a vote on Saturday, a week after its first impeachment vote was defeated.

Since then, some members of the president's party have spoken in favour of the motion. Only eight PPP members would need to vote for impeachment for it to pass with the opposition's full support.

"The impeachment train has left the platform. There is going to be no way to stop it," DP leader Lee Jae-myung said at a party meeting.

Kim Jae-sub, a PPP member who joined his party's boycott of the first impeachment vote, said he would vote for the motion this time and urged his party to do the same.

If parliament votes to impeach, the Constitutional Court then deliberates the case and decides whether to remove the president from office.

The country's metal workers' union, including workers at the Kia Corp automakers, has declared a protest strike for Wednesday. Members of financial institutions including the Bank of Korea plan to join a protest rally on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim, Hyonhee Shin; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Stephen Coates)