▲ Park Jong-joon, former chief of the Presidential Security Service, arrives at the Seoul Central District Court on July 9, 2026, to attend his sentencing hearing. (Yonhap)
▲ Kim Seong-hoon, former deputy chief of the Presidential Security Service, arrives at the Seoul Central District Court on July 9, 2026, to attend his sentencing hearing. (Yonhap)

ex-PSS officials-court

3 ex-PSS officials get prison terms for obstructing Yoon arrest warrant

SEOUL, July 9 (Yonhap) -- Park Jong-joon, former chief of the Presidential Security Service (PSS), and Kim Seong-hoon, its former deputy chief, were sentenced to prison Thursday for blocking investigators from executing a warrant to detain former President Yoon Suk Yeol last year.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Park to four years in prison and Kim to five years for obstructing the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials' attempt to execute an arrest warrant for Yoon at the presidential residence in January 2025 over his imposition of martial law.

Kim was also found guilty of helping carry out Yoon's order for the PSS to delete records from secure phones used by several military commanders after his martial law declaration.

In addition, the court handed down a sentence of 2 1/2 years to Lee Kwang-woo, former chief of the PSS' bodyguard division, in the same case. The court then ordered the immediate detention of the three, citing flight risk.

Kim Shin, a former PSS official in charge of presidential family security, was given a suspended prison term of one year.

"The defendants mobilized PSS officials to obstruct the lawful execution of a warrant by an investigative agency in accordance with Yoon's unlawful instructions," the court said, calling it a serious crime.

It said Park was supposed to have refused to follow Yoon's instructions, while Kim played the most active and hard-line role in the process of obstructing the execution of the arrest warrant.

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