SOUTH KOREA’S impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was detained today in a massive law enforcement operation at the presidential compound.

Mr Yoon defiantly insisted that the anti-corruption agency lacked the authority to investigate his actions, but said he complied to prevent violence.

In a video message recorded before he was escorted to the headquarters of the anti-corruption agency, Mr Yoon claimed that the “rule of law has completely collapsed in this country.”

Mr Yoon, the country’s first incumbent president to be arrested, had spend week refusing to emerge from the Hannam-dong residence in the capital Seoul while vowing to “fight to the end” against the efforts to oust him. 

He has justified his December 3 declaration of martial law as a legitimate act of governance against an “anti-state” opposition employing its legislative majority to thwart his agenda.

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials said the president was brought into custody about five hours after investigators arrived at his compound and about three hours after they entered the residence during their second attempt to detain him over his imposition of martial law.

After leaving the presidential compound with a police escort, Mr Yoon was later seen arriving at the anti-corruption agency’s office in the nearby city of Gwacheon.

Following questioning, the president was expected to be sent to a detention centre in Uiwang, near Seoul.

The anti-corruption agency told reporters that Mr Yoon exercised his right to remain silent during his first two hours of questioning.

The warrant for his arrest said there were substantial reasons to suspect that he had committed crimes as a “ringleader of a rebellion.”

Mr Yoon’s powers were suspended when parliament impeached him on December 14.

The impeachment case now rests with the Constitutional Court, which could formally remove the president from office or reject the case and reinstate him.