South Korea Bars President From Traveling Abroad

South Korea’s political dysfunction deepened Monday as its Ministry of Justice barred President Yoon Suk Yeol from leaving the country while officials investigate whether his brief declaration of martial law last week amounted to leading an insurrection.

Oh Dong-woon, the chief prosecutor who heads the office for investigating high-ranking officials, told lawmakers that he had sought the travel ban as the office carries out search-and-seizure operations targeting officials who were involved in the martial law order.

No sitting president has ever been arrested in South Korea, and the order adds to the spiraling fallout of Mr. Yoon’s extraordinary move last Tuesday. Since his short-lived martial law declaration, the country has been thrust into a leadership vacuum, and widespread protests have called for his removal.

The justice ministry’s quick acceptance of Mr. Oh’s request shows how Mr. Yoon’s grip on his own government is coming unglued. Mr. Yoon, a former prosecutor, has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the prosecutors and the justice ministry on his side as a key governing tool, appointing loyalists to key posts there. Home Minister Lee Sang-min, another staunch Yoon ally who controlled the police, stepped down on Sunday.

But the ban also suggested that the investigators considered the allegations of insurrection against Mr. Yoon serious enough to bar the head of state from leaving the country. Mr. Yoon did not immediately notify the National Assembly of his declaration of martial law, as required by law. Even during martial law, the president has no right to detain lawmakers unless they are caught in the act of a crime — a legal provision law scholars say Mr. Yoon violated when he sent troops into the Assembly