Presidential guards, military troops prevent authorities from arresting Yoon

Investigators plan to get Acting President to issue order for security service to cooperate

South Korea's presidential guards and military troops prevented the authorities from arresting impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Jan 3 in a tense six-hour stand-off inside his compound in the heart of Seoul.

Mr Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his Dec 3 martial law bid that stunned South Korea and led to the first arrest warrant being issued for a sitting president.

"It was judged that it was virtually impossible to execute the arrest warrant due to the ongoing stand-off," the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said in a statement.

The CIO officials and police evaded hundreds of Mr Yoon's supporters who gathered in the predawn hours near his residence on Jan 3, vowing to block the arrest "with our lives". Some called for the head of the CIO to be arrested.

Officials from the CIO, which is leading a joint team of investigators looking into possible insurrection charges related to Mr Yoon's brief declaration of martial law, had arrived at the gates of the presidential compound in central Seoul shortly after 7am local time (6am Singapore time), and entered on foot.

Once inside the compound, the CIO officials and police were outnumbered by cordons of Presidential Security Service (PSS) personnel, as well as military troops seconded to presidential security, a CIO official told reporters.

More than 200 PSS agents and soldiers formed several layers of human chains to block the CIO officials and police, the official added.