South Korea’s President arrested

The South Korean leader's arrest halts weeks-long standoff between the investigators and the presidential security team

The impeached South Korean leader, Yoon Suk Yeol, has become South Korea’s first president to be arrested and detained in the nation’s history.

He was arrested on Wednesday over his failed martial law bid after personnel from the country’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) scaled through barricades and barbed wires to get him into custody.

His arrest halts a weeks-long standoff between the investigators and the presidential security team.

Officials of the CIO had made an initial attempt to arrest Mr Yoon on Friday, 3 January, but faced a six-hour standoff with his security detail and failed to apprehend him.

However, just before dawn on Wednesday, a much larger force of investigators and police personnel launched a decisive operation at his residence in Seoul, the country’s capital.

Armed with ladders to climb over buses blocking the entrance and bolt cutters to cut through barbed wire, they pressed forward. Other officers scaled walls and navigated nearby trails to gain access to the presidential residence.

“I decided to appear before the CIO, even though it is an illegal investigation, in order to prevent any unsavoury bloodshed,” Mr Yoon said in a video shortly before his arrest, according to the BBC.

The Investigation

The president is under investigation for insurrection for his failed martial law order issued on 3 December, which threw the nation into chaos.

By law, the CIO can keep Mr Yoon in custody for up to 48 hours from the point of arrest.

They must obtain a new warrant to detain him while he continues to be investigated. Should the warrant be granted, they can detain him for up to 20 days before he is brought to trial.

However, if there is no new warrant, the president must be released.

Mr Yoon described the short-lived martial law declaration on 3 December as an attempt to protect the country from “anti-state” forces that sympathised with North Korea.

However, the CIO considers it to be spurred by personal political troubles.

The martial law

The president was impeached on 14 December 2024. The martial law he declared, which was overturned after just six hours, was the central cause of the impeachment.

The declaration, which mandated the suspension of civil liberties and the transfer of significant powers to military authorities, had sparked national outrage.

The declaration granted military authority over civilian governance, including control over public assemblies and the enforcement of curfews.

It also restricted media and communication channels to suppress dissent and manage information flow.

Mr Yoon’s actions, deemed by many as an authoritarian overreach and a threat to South Korea’s democracy, led to mass protests and widespread calls for his removal.

The impeachment motion passed with 204 votes in favour, surpassing the required two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. However, he remained in office as president and refused calls to resign.

Mr Yoon’s lawyers have tagged the arrest “illegal” because the CIO, as an anti-corruption agency, has no power to investigate the president’s insurrection allegations. However, according to the opposition Democratic Party’s floor leader, Park Chan-dae, “the arrest showed that justice in South Korea is alive.”

The BBC quoted him as saying, “This arrest is the first step toward restoring constitutional order, democracy, and the rule of law.”

The country’s finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, is currently the acting president.