South Korea’s Dueling Protests

It was another call to action on Friday for the South Korean protest movement that had faced down security forces just a month ago to resist President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law.

Those first mass protests got results: Mr. Yoon’s startling declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 was reversed, then the National Assembly impeached him and opened an investigation into whether he had led an insurrection.

But in the weeks since, paralysis and polarization have set in. And that’s what protesters found on the roads outside Mr. Yoon’s official residence.

A mass of Mr. Yoon’s supporters were already there. They had hurried to his neighborhood after being jolted by the news Friday morning of the move afoot to detain him in connection with his martial law declaration last month. Other Yoon supporters had already been there for days, camped out on the pavement near his home in central Seoul, vowing to block any efforts to detain him.

Law enforcement officials retreated after trying for hours to work their way past Mr. Yoon’s supporters and running up against greater numbers of his personal security team. Their warrant to detain him for official questioning went unserved.

Thousands of anti-Yoon protesters rushed in to face off with thousands of pro-Yoon supporters. For his supporters, it was a moment of joy and defiance. For his detractors, one of bitter frustration.

“I’m so angry,” said Lee Ye-seul, 19, a university student in Seoul, who was marching toward Mr. Yoon’s residence with a crowd of protesters calling for his arrest.

The protesters occupied a section of a road near Mr. Yoon’s residence and planned to camp out overnight. “Detain and arrest Yoon Suk Yeol immediately!” read signs they held up. “Let’s wipe out the accomplices, sympathizers and party of insurrection!”

Kim Yoon-hyeong, 20, called the presence of Mr. Yoon’s supporters “the hard right’s attempt to protect its interests” and dismissed their claims. He said Mr. Yoon could not stay in power.

“It doesn’t make sense to leave a person who declared martial law against the country in office,” he said.

Kang Hye-sun, 57, joined the pro-Yoon protest on Friday afternoon after seeing the news earlier of the plan to detain him. She had learned on YouTube that his supporters were near his residence.

“Yoon Suk Yeol is fighting alone,” she said tearfully. She added that she believed there had been voter fraud in last year’s election, when his ruling party lost the majority in the National Assembly.

She was holding a poster that read, “Stop the steal,” the slogan popularized by former President Donald J. Trump to question the results of the 2020 presidential election in the United States, which he lost.

“What happened to Trump is happening to Yoon Suk Yeol,” she said.

Nearby, leaders of the pro-Yoon protests aired similar conspiratorial claims of mass voter fraud in the last election and called Mr. Yoon’s impeachment by the National Assembly invalid.

One pro-Yoon protester waved her cane at the marchers calling for Yoon’s arrest, shouting, “What country are you from?” Some anti-Yoon marchers urged the police to arrest a pro-Yoon protester whom they accused of spitting at the crowd from a pedestrian overpass overlooking the street.

But police officers in neon yellow jackets surrounded both groups of protesters. There was tension, raised voices, jostling now and then, but no outright violence.

As darkness fell, leaders of the protest calling for the impeached president’s arrest urged demonstrators to sit down as they began to camp out on a road outside Yoon’s residence.

Thousands of protesters continued to chant, “Arrest Yoon Suk Yeol!” while seated on the cold asphalt. Temperatures in Seoul, which hovered a little above freezing on Friday, were expected to drop to 17 degrees Fahrenheit overnight.

Ms. Lee, who planned to stay out through the night, said that she had put on a thick winter coat and brought an extra vest in her backpack.

“I will speak out until he is removed and the people involved in the insurrection are punished,” she said.