Investigators scale barricades to arrest S Korea’s impeached president

Yoon Suk Yeol has become South Korea’s first sitting president to be arrested after investigators scaled barricades and cut through barbed wire to take him into custody.

Investigators scale barricades to arrest S Korea’s impeached president

Yoon, 64, is being investigated on charges of insurrection for a failed martial law order on 3 December that plunged the country into turmoil.

Yoon, whose failed attempt to impose martial law plunged the country into turmoil and saw him impeached by parliament, is being investigated on charges of insurrection.

He is, however, still technically the president as a constitutional court has to decide whether his impeachment is valid.

Investigators used ladders and wirecutters in the freezing cold to get to Yoon, whose Presidential Security Service (PSS) personnel had erected barricades in a bid to thwart his arrest.

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.

In a three-minute video released just before his arrest, the 64-year-old leader said he would cooperate with the investigators, while repeating previous claims that the warrant was not legally valid.

Other members of the team – which numbered around 1,000 officers – scaled walls and hiked up nearby trails in a bid to reach the presidential 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 comply with the investigation against him even though he was against it.

Yoon has consistently maintained that the warrant for his arrest is not legally valid.