Suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has reportedly been arrested over insurrection charges stemming from his ill-fated martial law declaration last month.

Yoon’s detention was reported Wednesday by Yonhap, one of the country’s largest news outlets. A warrant for his arrest, initially requested after he failed to show up for questioning, has been out since Dec. 31.

Police dispatched some 3,200 officers to the president’s sprawling hillside estate in Seoul, according to Reuters, where he has spent weeks in hiding whilst surrounded by a personal security detail.

Video shows officers closing in on Yoon’s residence, according to Reuters, where hundreds of his supporters had already gathered to protest on his behalf. Earlier, they were reportedly seen pushing through a group of them.

SOUTH KOREA’S IMPEACHED PRESIDENT AVOIDS ARREST ATTEMPT AFTER HOURSLONG STANDOFF

A previous attempt to detain Yoon was called off on Jan. 3 following a six-hour standoff between military guards and the president’s security staff. 

“As I have repeatedly emphasized the need for prevention of physical conflict between state agencies,” Acting President Choi Sang-mok said in a statement Wednesday. “I will sternly hold those responsible if unfortunate events occur.”

Executing a warrant for Yoon’s arrest has proven difficult for investigators, as the president’s legal counsel insists it is impossible to do so under a law barring non-consensual searches of locations potentially linked to military secrets.

Yoon’s lawyers have also decried such a warrant as an illegal means of publicly humiliating him.

ARREST WARRANT ISSUED FOR IMPEACHED SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT AS POLITICAL CRISIS DEEPENS

The arrest warrant is the first ever to be levied against a sitting South Korean president. Yoon’s warrant stems from his declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 out of apparent frustration with the opposition-dominated parliament’s refusal to pass key items on his political agenda.

The move was decried within South Korea and abroad, where analysts expressed shock at the sudden and unprecedented move in what is typically one of Asia’s most stable democracies.

Police officers are seen closing in on suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol’s residence in Seoul, South Korea, alongside investigators of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials. (REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji)

Parliament unanimously rejected Yoon’s declaration, and subsequently suspended him on Dec. 14 in a 204-85 vote that included members of his own party. 

Yoon will be formally impeached should the Constitutional Court uphold the motion with a three-fourths majority.

The court’s next hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Reuters contributed to this report.

As the IT sector continues to grow, thousands of European companies are having trouble filling the many positions available.

According to 2024 Eurostat data, 57.5% of EU businesses can’t recruit all the necessary ICT specialists.

The gap between labour demand and actual employment has grown by 20% in the past ten years.

Large businesses are facing the biggest challenges.

Sixty-eight per cent of them are unable to fill all their ICT specialist positions, followed by medium (59.2%) and small-sized enterprises (53.4%).

Germany, the Czech Republic, Malta, Austria, and Luxembourg are the countries most in need of ICT specialists, with at least 65% of businesses facing shortages.

The percentages are even higher for large enterprises: 84% in Malta, 80% in Germany, 79% in the Czech Republic, 78% in Slovenia, 76% in Austria, 75% in Luxembourg, 73% in Latvia, 72% in Hungary and 71% in Croatia.

Spain, Poland, and Bulgaria have the least hiring problems, although at least 30% of companies in these countries still face ICT shortages.

What are the highest-paid IT positions?

The main difficulties in recruitment, according to Eurostat, are a lack of applications, insufficient qualifications and experience, and high salary expectations.

Salaries in the ICT sector have consistently outpaced average wages in Europe in the last decade, according to the 2024 OECD Digital Economy Outlook. In the EU, in particular, annual wages grew by 0.24% compared to 0.20% in the rest of the economy.

Recruitment specialists Robert Walters have listed the top-paid ICT jobs in countries including Germany, which seems to be struggling the most in the EU to recruit specialists.

The highest-paid role is Chief Information Technology Officer, with an annual base of €150k for employees with at least three years of experience, to €180k for those with at least eight years.

The consultancy role in the highest bracket is the SAP/ERP one, with a base of €100k. (SAP ERP is an enterprise resource planning software.)

Data engineer and data scientist positions are both in the €100-120k bracket.

Video editor • Mert Can Yilmaz

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