‘It starts now’: South Korea’s President Yoon defiant as police closed in | U.S. & World [Video]

By Ju-min Park, Hyunsu Yim and John Geddie

SEOUL (Reuters) – As 3,000 riot police swarmed his hillside villa on Wednesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol huddled with party loyalists, telling them that people were increasingly realising the country’s legal system had been hijacked by leftist forces.

“People are now seeing how serious the situation is,” the impeached president told the gathering, according to one lawmaker present, Yoon Sang-hyun.

“It starts now,” the 64-year-old leader said, according to another lawmaker, Kwon Young-jin.

Yoon cited the support of thousands who have taken to the streets to defend him since he was impeached by parliament over his short-lived Dec. 3 martial law decree and criminally accused of insurrection, the second lawmaker said.

Hours later, Yoon, a former prosecutor, ended a weeks-long standoff and became the country’s first sitting president to be arrested, submitting to authorities in what he calls an illegal investigation.

His unsubstantiated assertions about South Korea’s compromised …