N Korea says South in 'political chaos' over Yoon arrest drama

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

- Reuters

Reuters [e-mail] SEOUL:

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

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

CIO officials and police evaded hundreds of Yoon supporters who gathered in pre-dawn hours near his residence on Friday, who adopted the "Stop the Steal" slogans popularised by US President-elect Donald Trump's supporters, to block the arrest.

Officials from the CIO, which is leading a joint team of investigators, arrived at the gates of the presidential compound shortly after 7am (local time) and entered on foot.

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