South Korean authorities halt bid to arrest Yoon after hours-long standoff

South Korean authorities have suspended an attempt to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol after an hours-long standoff with his security team.

The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said on Friday that it had decided to halt its bid to detain Yoon over his short-lived declaration of martial law, after the Presidential Security Service (PSS) blocked its investigators from entering his residence.

“Regarding the execution of the arrest warrant today, it was determined that the execution was effectively impossible due to the ongoing standoff. Concern for the safety of personnel on-site led to the decision to halt the execution,” the CIO said in a statement.

Investigators arrived at Yoon’s compound early on Friday morning to detain the embattled leader as part of an investigation into alleged insurrection and abuse of power related to his brief imposition of martial law on December 3, which plunged the East Asian nation into its deepest political crisis in decades.

PSS chief Park Jong-joon denied investigators entry to Yoon’s residence after citing restrictions on secured areas, the state-funded Yonhap News Agency reported, citing anonymous police sources.

“CIO prosecutors and investigators are in a standoff with the Presidential Security Service in front of the residence after moving past the first and second barriers,” Yonhap quoted a police official as saying.

Speculation about when and how authorities would take Yoon into custody has swirled since a Seoul court earlier this week granted prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant.

Yoon’s security detail previously blocked investigators from executing several search warrants directed at the president.

If arrested, the conservative leader would be the first sitting president to be detained in South Korean history.