South Korea's Yoon Suk Yeol rose from star prosecutor to the presidency in just a few years, but after a series of scandals and a bungled martial law decree, he's become the country's first-ever sitting president to be arrested.

The lurch back to South Korea's dark days of military rule on December 3 only lasted a few hours, and after a night of protests and high drama Yoon was forced into a U-turn by lawmakers.

He has since been impeached -- pending a court trial that began this week -- and resisted arrest until Wednesday, when he backed down to investigators after a tense, weeks-long political standoff.

He said the investigators did not have the authority to arrest him and that he had only complied to avert "bloodshed" -- but his name is now etched in history.

As well as the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested, he is the third to be impeached by parliamentary vote, and, if upheld by the Constitutional Court, would be the second to be removed from office.

Born in Seoul in 1960 months before a military coup, Yoon studied law and went........

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