The right-wing leader has a strong support base, but most South Koreans oppose his martial law attempt. BBC/AGENCYJust before dawn on Wednesday, 3,000 police officers arrived at the heavily-fortified residence of South Korea's suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Their mission: to arrest him.
Investigators used ladders to scale over buses and bolt cutters to get through barbed wire as they broke through multiple blockades designed to stop them. Others hiked up nearby trails to reach the presidential residence.
Hours later, they took him into custody for questioning over an alleged act of insurrection.
This was their second attempt. Their first, which took place earlier this month, had seen some 150 officers face a six-hour deadlock with the president's security detail.
They were helplessly outnumbered, first by the large number of pro-Yoon supporters who had gathered outside his residence to stop the police, and then by a human wall of security officers inside the property.
Eventually, investigators concluded that it was "practically impossible" to arrest him - and left.
Many now see Yoon as a disgraced leader - impeached and suspended from his presidential duties for trying to impose martial law, while he awaits the decision of the Constitutional Court, which can remove him from office.
So why has it been so difficult to arrest him?
The men guarding the president It has been an unprecedented few weeks for South Korea since Yoon's shocking yet short-lived martial law order on 3 December.
Lawmakers voted to impeach him, then came a criminal investigation and his refusal to appear for questioning, which was what sparked the arrest warrant.
One key roadblock for the arresting officers had been Yoon's presidential security team, which on 3 January had formed a human wall and used vehicles to block the officers' path.
Analysts said they could have acted out of loyalty to Yoon, pointing to the fact that Yoon himself had appointed several leaders of the Presidential Security Service (PSS).
"It may well be the case that Yoon has seeded the organisation with hardline loyalists in preparation for precisely this eventuality," says US-based lawyer and Korea expert Christopher Jumin Lee.
It is unclear why they reportedly put up less resistance this time, though Mr Lee believes the team may have been partly deterred by the "overwhelming show of force by the police".
"At the end of the day I think they were simply unwilling to engage in the sort of large-scale violence against law enforcement officers that a full-throated defence of Yoon would have demanded," he said.
Earlier this week, the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) had warned the PSS that they risked losing their pensions and their civil servant status for obstructing the arrest.
In contrast, it reassured those who "defy illegal orders" to block the arrest that they "will not face disadvantages".
On Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported that a number of PSS members were either on leave or had chosen to stay inside the residence.
The right-wing leader also has a strong support base. Some of Yoon's supporters had earlier told the BBC that they were prepared to die to protect him and repeated unfounded allegations that Yoon himself has floated, including that the country had been infiltrated by pro-North Korea forces.
On 3 January, thousands of them, undeterred by freezing temperatures, had camped outside his home to stop the arrest team from moving in. They had cried with joy when they found out that the team had given up.
It was a similar story on Wednesday, with a large crowd of pro-Yoon supporters showing up and some aggressively confronting the police to stop the arrest.
On hearing that Yoon had been arrested, some of them cried.
An 'incompetent' agency
But the organisation that has really come under the spotlight is the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, to give it its full name, which is jointly leading the investigation with the police.
There have been questions raised about how the CIO failed to arrest Yoon on its first try, with critics accusing it of being unprepared and lacking co-ordination.
The agency was created four years ago by the previous administration, in response to public anger over former president Park Geun-hye who was impeached, removed from office and later jailed over a corruption scandal.
This month's failed attempt was a "further black eye" for the CIO, which already "does not have a great reputation, for both political and capability reasons", says Mason Richey, an associate professor at Seoul's Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
The CIO may book today's successful arrest as a win, but it remains to be seen how they will handle the investigation going forward, says Prof Richey.
"Many people do not trust their messaging about the investigation," he adds.
"We've entered this mess after various organisations scrambled to spearhead the probe for their own gain," says lawyer Lee Chang-min, a member of the activist organisation Lawyers for a Democratic Society.
"Even if the joint investigative body is retained, the case should be handed over to the police, which should assert its authority," he adds.
The CIO has no power to bring charges and is expected to hand over the case to state prosecutors after its investigation.
Despite its name, the CIO has a wider remit than corruption. Its duties extend to investigating high-level officials more generally - for abuse of power. The CIO has argued that Yoon abused his power to conduct an insurrection.
But Yoon's lawyers argue the CIO is an anti-corruption agency and its powers do not extend to investigating insurrections. They are reported to be considering filing an appeal in the Supreme Court to test this, according to Yonhap news agency.
South Korea is now in uncharted territory, with Yoon being the first sitting president to be arrested.
And the investigations into him have also "mobilised the far-right, populist elements" within the conservative coalition, who may "exert an outsize influence over" the country's conservative politics going forward, Mr Lee says.
