South Korea authorities arrive to arrest impeached President Yoon

Authorities sought on Friday to execute an arrest warrant for impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, as a crowd of protesters faced off with police outside his residence and vowed to block any attempt.

Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his short-lived martial law attempt on Dec. 3. An arrest would be unprecedented for an incumbent South Korean president.

Officials from the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading a joint team of investigators that include the police and prosecutors, had arrived gates of Yoon's compound shortly after 7 a.m. (2200 GMT Thursday), according to Reuters witnesses.

Yonhap News Agency reported that about 3,000 police had been mobilized in preparation.

It was unclear whether the Presidential Security Service, which has blocked access by investigators with a search warrant to Yoon's office and official residence, would try to stop the arrest.

Media reports said the CIO vehicles did not immediately enter the compound.

Protesters gathered in the pre-dawn hours near his residence, with the numbers swelling into the hundreds amid media reports that investigating authorities would soon try to execute the arrest warrant that was approved on Tuesday after Yoon refused summons to appear.

"We have to block them with our lives," one was heard saying to others. About a dozen protesters tried to block a group of police officers at the entrance to a pedestrian overpass.

Some chanted "President Yoon Suk Yeol will be protected by the people," and called for the head of the CIO to be arrested.

Pyeong In-su, 74, said that the police had to be stopped by "patriotic citizens", a term Yoon used to describe those standing guard near his residence.

Holdi