Blocked by bodyguards, officials retreated after several hours without serving a court warrant to hold President Yoon Suk Yeol for questioning on insurrection charges.

Yoon's Dec 3 martial declaration stunned South Korea and led to the first arrest warrant to be issued for a sitting president.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces the greatest threat to his brief but chequered political career as he struggles to thwart an unprecedented arrest attempt in a criminal probe alleging he led an insurrection.