Protesters supporting and opposing the embattled Yoon braved freezing temperatures to stage rallies on the streets around the presidential compound on Wednesday after a court re-issued a warrant to arrest him.
The Presidential Security Service (PSS) has been fortifying the compound this week with barbed wire and barricades using buses to block access to the residence, a hillside villa in an upscale district known as Korea's Beverly Hills.
South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol's security detail has held arresting authorities at bay. (AP PHOTO)
Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his failed attempt to impose martial law on December 3, a decision that stunned South Korea and prompted the first arrest warrant for a sitting president.
He also faces an impeachment trial in the Constitutional Court.
On Wednesday, one of Yoon's lawyers, said the president could not accept the execution of the arrest warrant because it was issued by a court in the wrong jurisdiction.
Yoon Kap-keun, the lawyer, also denied suggestions by some members of parliament that Yoon had fled the official residence, saying he had met the president there on Tuesday. He said they were "malicious" rumours intended to slander Yoon.
On Tuesday, Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which is leading the investigation into Yoon, apologised for failing to arrest the president last week after a six-hour standoff with hundreds of PSS agents and military guards at the compound.
"We'll do our best to accomplish our goal by thoroughly preparing this time with great determination that the second warrant execution will be the last," Oh told a parliament committee.
Oh did not object when members of parliament called for tough action to overpower the presidential guards and military troops inside the compound, but he declined to discuss what options were being considered to achieve that.
Various scenarios reported in local media included mobilising police special tactical units and heavy equipment to push through the barricades, followed by more than 2,000 police to drag out presidential guards, taking as long as three days if necessary to wear down presidential security agents.
The CIO and police were outnumbered in the arrest attempt last week by more than 200 PSS personnel, some of whom were carrying firearms, as well as troops seconded to presidential security, a CIO official has said.
