Yoon Suk Yeol has become South Korea’s first incumbent President to be arrested after investigators scaled barricades and cut through barbed wire to take him into custody.
Yoon, 64, is being investigated on charges of insurrection for a failed martial law order on 3 December that plunged the country into turmoil.
He has also been impeached by parliament and suspended from office – but will not be removed from his position until the Constitutional Court rules on his impeachment.
Yoon’s dramatic arrest on Wednesday however, brings to an end a weeks-long standoff between investigators and his presidential security team.
The Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) had previously attempted to arrest him on January 3 but were blocked by buses and barbed wire.
But just before dawn on Wednesday, a team of investigators arrived, armed with ladders to climb over the buses and pliers to cut through the barbed wire.
Other officers in the team, which numbered around 1,000 scaled walls to reach the President’s residence.
After several hours, authorities announced that Yoon had been arrested.
In a three-minute video released just before his arrest, the 64-year-old leader said he would cooperate with the investigators while repeating his previous claims that the warrant was not legally valid.
He said he witnessed how authorities “invaded” his home’s security perimeter with fire equipment.
Editor: Anoyoyo Ogiagboviogie
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