South Korea: Authorities arrest impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol after entering residence

This morning’s events are the culmination of almost six weeks of political chaos in South Korea.

This is totally uncharted territory for the country – the first time a sitting president has ever faced arrest. Here’s a recap of how we ended up here.

On 3 December Yoon shocked the world by declaring martial law in a late-night televised address, only to back down when lawmakers voted to defeat the measure hours later.

Outcry from all sides of politics was swift and as more details emerged, a second bid by lawmakers to impeach the president – stripping him of his powers pending a court trial – passed on 14 December.

At the same time, police began investigating Yoon and his allies for insurrection.

But Yoon has refused to cooperate with the authorities, ignoring every request to come in for questioning and even so far refusing to turn up at his own impeachment trial which was due to begin yesterday.

And so investigators say they have no other option but to arrest him, and have obtained legal court warrants to do so.

But Yoon – who is supposed to be essentially powerless after parliament voted to remove him from office – used his security teams to thwart their first arrest attempt earlier this month and is trying to do it again today, raising serious and uncomfortable questions about who is in charge here.