- South Korea’s president arrested after dramatic standoff
- Yoon Suk Yeol faces charges of insurrection related to a failed martial law order
- Investigators scaled barricades and cut through barbed wire to arrest the president
South Korea’s president arrested after dramatic standoff
Yoon Suk Yeol has made history as the first sitting president of South Korea to be arrested, following a high-profile standoff at his residence in central Seoul. Investigators scaled barricades and cut through barbed wire early Wednesday morning to take the 64-year-old leader into custody.
Yoon faces charges of insurrection related to a failed martial law order on December 3, which led to widespread chaos in the country. He has also been impeached by parliament and suspended from office, although his removal is pending a ruling from South Korea’s Constitutional Court.
The arrest concludes weeks of tension between investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) and Yoon’s presidential security team. An earlier attempt to arrest the president on January 3 ended in a six-hour standoff, during which investigators were blocked by his security detail.
In Wednesday’s pre-dawn operation, a team of approximately 1,000 officers employed a variety of tactics to breach the fortified residence. They used ladders to climb over buses blocking the entrance, bolt cutters to slice through barbed wire, and scaled walls and nearby trails to gain access. After several hours, authorities confirmed Yoon’s arrest.
Before his capture, Yoon released a three-minute video reiterating his claim that the arrest warrant was invalid but stated he would cooperate with the investigators.