Justin McCurry

The outcome of today’s attempted arrest of Yoon Suk Yeol could depend on the response of his presidential security service, which has blocked previous attempts to search his office. The legal and political stakes are higher, now, though.

While Yoon’s lawyers have refused to accept the arrest warrant – calling it “illegal and invalid – Friday’s dramatic developments place the security service in an unprecedented position.

Oh Dong-woon, the head of the Corruption Investigation Office, which is investigating Yoon on suspicion of insurrection, has warned that any attempt to block the execution of the warrant could amount to dereliction of duty and obstruction of official duties.

South Korean investigators have released a statement saying they have started executing their arrest warrant.

“The execution of the arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol has begun,” the Corruption Investigation Office said.

South Korean investigators entered the presidential residence early Friday seeking to arrest Yoon Suk Yeol, according to AFP reporters outside.

Investigators from the Corruption Investigation Office, which is probing Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law, were let through heavy security barricades to enter the residence to attempt to execute their warrant to detain Yoon, the reporters say.

If you’re just joining us, there is where things stand:

• South Korean investigators arrived outside the presidential residence early Friday seeking to arrest Yoon Suk Yeol, with the impeached leader’s die-hard supporters massing outside to protect him.

• Cars carrying investigators probing Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law drove up outside his residence in central Seoul, which was surrounded by a heavy police presence.

• Yoon, who has already been suspended from duty by lawmakers, would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested.

• Dozens of police buses and hundreds of uniformed police lined the street outside the compound in central Seoul.

• Some 2,700 police and 135 police buses have been deployed to the area to prevent clashes, the Yonhap news agency reported, after Yoon’s supporters faced off with anti-Yoon demonstrators in the area Thursday.

• Yoon has been holed up inside the residence since a court approved the warrant to detain him earlier this week, vowing to “fight” authorities seeking to question him over his failed martial law bid.

• The leader issued the bungled martial law declaration on 3 December that led to his impeachment and has left him facing arrest, imprisonment or, at worst, the death penalty.

• It is unclear whether the Presidential Security Service, which still protects Yoon as the country’s sitting head of state, would comply with investigators’ warrants.

• Members of his security team have previously blocked attempted police raids of his presidential residence.

Yonhap is reporting that investigating authorities have begun attempting to arrest President Yoon. From the live feed outside his compound shows someone talkingloudly into a loudspeaker. Police in high-vis yellow jackets appear to to be getting into lines, and there are several police vehicles parked outside.