SOUTH KOREAN investigators left the official residence of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol after a near six-hour stand-off today, during which he defied their attempt to detain him. 

The political crisis has created chaos in South Korea,with two heads of state impeached in under a month.

Today, the anti-corruption agency said it had withdrawn its investigators after the presidential security service blocked them from entering Mr Yoon’s residence for hours, due to concerns about their safety.

The agency said its outnumbered investigators had several scuffles with presidential security forces and expressed “serious regret about the attitude of the suspect, who did not comply with the legal process.”

Outside the residence, a large group of pro-Yoon protesters braved freezing temperatures for hours, waving South Korean and US flags while chanting slogans vowing to protect him.

The National Police Agency said it planned to investigate the chief and deputy chiefs of the presidential security service on suspicion of obstructing official duty and summoned them for questioning on Saturday.

Mr Yoon, a former prosecutor, has resisted investigators’ attempts to question him for weeks. The last time he is known to have left the residence was on December 12.

On that occasion, he went to the nearby presidential office to make a defiant televised statement to the nation that he intended to fight efforts to oust him.

Investigators from the anti-corruption agency are considering charges of rebellion after Mr Yoon declared martial law on December 3 and dispatched troops to surround the National Assembly.

Within hours, parliament overturned the declaration in an unanimous vote and went on to impeach the president on December 14, accusing him of rebellion, while South Korean anti-corruption authorities and public prosecutors opened separate investigations into the events.

A Seoul court issued a warrant to detain Mr Yoon and a separate warrant to search his residence on Tuesday, but enforcing them is complicated as long as he remains in his official residence.

The president’s lawyers filed a challenge to the warrant on Thursday, saying it cannot be enforced at his residence due to a law that protects locations potentially linked to military secrets from search without the consent of the person in charge.

The anti-corruption agency vowed to discuss further actions but did not immediately say whether it would make another attempt to detain Mr Yoon. 

The warrant for his detention is valid for one week.