South Korea authorities arrive to arrest impeached President Yoon over martial law

SEOUL — Authorities sought on Friday (Jan 3) to execute an unprecedented arrest warrant for impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, evading a crowd of protesters but facing off with security forces inside his residence.

Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his Dec 3. martial law attempt that stunned South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy and one of the region's most vibrant democracies.

An arrest would be the first 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 at the gates of Yoon's compound shortly after 7am local time (2200 GMT Thursday), according to Reuters witnesses.

Media reports said the CIO vehicles did not immediately enter the compound, partly due to a bus blocking the driveway.

Some CIO officials later filed through an opened gate on foot and past the bus, but then briefly faced another bus and an armoured vehicle further up the driveway, before they were moved.

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.

Yoon's lawyer said in a statement on Friday that execution of an invalid arrest warrant against Yoon is unlawful, and they will take legal action, without elaborating.

Protesters gathered in the pre-dawn hours near the 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