Police scaled walls to arrest president

SOUTH Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol yesterday became the country's first president to be arrested - after police and corruption investigators climbed walls and cut through barbed wire to get to him.

- By Mark Reynolds

In extraordinary scenes, the pre- mier was taken into custody after around 1,000 members of the arrest team descended on his residence.

Some arrived armed with ladders to climb over buses blocking the entrance to the property and bolt cutters to remove the barbed wire.

Others scaled walls and hiked up trails to reach the presidential residence in central Seoul.

Yoon is being investigated on charges of insurrection after he tried but failed to bring in a martial law order on December 3, which plunged his country into total chaos.