South Korean investigators abandon Yoon's arrest due to ongoing standoff

South Korean investigators called off their attempt to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol at his residence on Friday over a failed martial law bid, citing safety concerns after a standoff with his security team.

"Regarding the execution of the arrest warrant today, it was determined that the execution was effectively impossible due to the ongoing standoff," the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), which is probing Yoon over his martial law decree, said in a statement.

"Concern for the safety of personnel on-site led to the decision to halt" the arrest attempt, the statement said of the confrontation with Yoon's presidential security service and its military unit.

The deadline for the warrant is on Monday, leaving it in limbo with just a few days remaining and Yoon defiant, vowing earlier this week to "fight" authorities seeking to question him.

Corruption Investigation Office investigators and police officials entered his residence earlier on Friday in an attempt to execute their warrant to detain Yoon.

Investigators began executing a warrant for Yoon's arrest over his failed martial law bid, the first time the country has ever sought to arrest a sitting leader.

The suspended president, who issued a bungled declaration on December 3 that shook the vibrant East Asian democracy and briefly lurched it back to the dark days of military rule, now faces arrest, imprisonment or, at worst, the death penalty.

CIO investigators including senior prosecutor Lee Dae-hwan were let through heavy security barricades to enter the residence to attempt to execute their warrant to detain Yoon.

But they were "blocked by a military unit inside" after entering, the Yonhap reported.

Yoon's legal team slams arrest warrant

Members of his security team have previously blocked attempted police raids of the presidential residence, but it was not immediately clear which unit had blocked investigators on Friday.

Yoon's legal team decried the attempt to execute the arrest warrant, vowing to take further legal action against the move.

"The execution of a warrant that is illegal and invalid is indeed not lawful," Yoon's lawyer Yoon Kap-keun said.

Dozens of police buses and hundreds of uniformed police lined the street outside the compound in central Seoul.

Some 2,700 police and 135 police buses have been deployed to the area to prevent clashes, Yonhap reported, after Yoon's supporters faced off with anti-Yoon demonstrators on Thursday.