South Korea’s impeached president has been detained after police swarmed his home in the darkness of night amid a drawn-out stand-off.
The arrest of Yoon Suk Yeol comes after supporters were locked in a stand-off with police as officers try to detain the impeached president.
He is the country’s first sitting head of state to be detained.
‘The Joint Investigation Headquarters executed an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol today – January 15 – at 10:33 am,’ authorities, who are probing Yoon on insurrection charges, said in a statement.
Hundreds of police officers and investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office had streamed up the driveway to the presidential residence before dawn on Wednesday, some scaling perimeter walls and hiking up back trails to reach the main building.
It was their second effort to arrest Yoon.
A first attempt on January 3 failed after a tense hours-long standoff with members of Yoon’s official Presidential Security Service (PSS), who refused to budge when investigators tried to execute their warrant.
Yoon’s lawyer announced on Wednesday morning the president had agreed to speak to investigators and that he had decided to leave the residence to prevent a ‘serious incident’.
The impeached president lunged the country into political chaos last month over his botched attempt to declare martial law, which triggered political chaos engulfing Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a key US ally.
The leader earlier was holed up in the presidential residence, surrounded by hundreds of loyal security officers.
Dramatic photographs showed police laying siege to the property by cutting through the barbed wire perimeter, before trekking up the hill towards the waiting president.
Over the last week, thousands have protested outside his gates, with an arrest warrant for alleged insurrection expiring at midnight on Monday and many demanding his immediate arrest.
