SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- At 3 a.m. Friday, five vehicles left South Korea's Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO).
Investigators onboard were to execute the arrest warrant against the impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol, which was issued by a Seoul court on Tuesday.
It marked the first time in the country's modern history that an arrest warrant was issued against a sitting president.
The investigators arrived at the residence in Seoul at about 7:21 a.m. and passed the first cordon of policemen to reach the residence's main gate some 40 minutes later.
They faced the third and last cordon of the security service inside the residence after breaking through the second cordon of soldiers.
During the breakthrough process, some investigators tussled with soldiers and security agents. No injury had yet to be confirmed.
About 2,700 riot policemen were allegedly deployed around the residence to help proceed with the arrest warrant.
After confronting the presidential security service agents for about five and a half hours, the CIO noted that it stopped the execution at about 1:30 p.m. over concerns about the safety of investigators at the scene, expressing deep regret over the attitude of Yoon who refused to comply with legal procedures.
The investigative unit added that it will decide on future measures after relevant reviews. The warrant was scheduled to be valid for a week until next Monday.
Chief of the presidential security service was later summoned by a joint investigation unit over the obstruction.
Yoon, who was named by investigative agencies as a suspected ringleader on an insurrection charge, declared martial law on the night of Dec. 3 last year, but it was revoked by the National Assembly hours later.
The impeachment motion against Yoon was passed in the National Assembly on Dec. 14, and was delivered to the constitutional court to deliberate it for up to 180 days, during which Yoon's presidential power is suspended.
Yoon said in a televised address on Dec. 12 that he would not avoid his legal and political responsibility for the martial law imposition. But the impeached leader even refused to receive summonses asking him to appear for questioning three times on Dec. 18, 25 and 29 respectively.
If arrested, Yoon would be taken to the CIO's headquarters in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, for questioning before being detained at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, just 5 km away from the headquarters.
The CIO would then be required to decide within 48 hours whether to seek a separate arrest warrant to keep Yoon in custody for 20 more days for further questioning or release him.■