SOUTH KOREA’S anti-corruption agency has requested that police take over efforts to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Agency investigators failed to take him into custody following a stand-off with the presidential security service last week.

The agency and police confirmed the discussion today, hours before the warrant for Mr Yoon’s detention, valid for one week, was due to expire.

Last Tuesday, the Seoul Western District Court issued that warrant and a separate one to search Mr Yoon’s residence after the embattled president defied authorities by refusing to appear for questioning over his short-lived martial law decree on December 3. 

But executing the warrants has proved impossible as Mr Yoon has remained in his official residence, protected by the presidential security service.

The president has vowed to “fight to the end” against efforts to remove him from office. 

As the Morning Star went to press, there were no reports of the anti-corruption agency making any further attempts to detain Mr Yoon before today’s deadline expired.

There were also no reports of a new court warrant being granted for the detention of the president. 

Mr Yoon’s legal team claimed in a statement that any attempt to delegate the execution of the warrant to police would be illegal, asserting that there were no legal grounds for the anti-corruption agency to delegate parts of an investigation process to another agency. 

The president’s lawyers insisted that the detention and search warrants against the president could not be enforced at his residence because there is a law protecting locations potentially linked to military secrets from search without the consent of the person in charge, which in this case is Mr Yoon. 

Hundreds of South Koreans braved freezing temperatures to rally near the presidential residence for the second consecutive night to demand the removal and arrest of the president, only dispersing in the early hours of yesterday.