Investigators arrived at South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s residence in Seoul on Friday in an apparent effort to detain the embattled leader.
Police vehicles and crowds of the impeached president’s supporters were seen outside of his home. Photos show protesters lying down in front of police in an attempt to block authorities from the residence.
ABC News has confirmed that authorities have entered the gate on Yoon’s property, however, there is currently a standoff between his security team and police investigators.
There are hundreds of officers on the scene.
The move to detain Yoon comes after a South Korean court issued an arrest and search warrant on Dec. 30 over his short-lived imposition of martial law, ABC News confirmed.
Under South Korea’s constitution, if a sitting president is accused of insurrection, the police have the authority to arrest him while he is still in office.
A joint investigation team sought the warrant on insurrection and abuse of power charges after they said Yoon ignored three summonses to appear for questioning.
The court’s decision to grant the warrant marks the first for a president in the country’s history.
Immediately after the request, Yoon’s attorneys asked the court to dismiss it, claiming that the headquarters “does not have the authority to investigate an insurrection” and that declaring martial law was constitutional.
Yoon declared martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country’s liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government.
The move sparked protests, and hours after the declaration, the National Assembly voted to demand that the president lift the martial law order. A majority of parliament — all 190 members who were present, out of the 300-person body — voted to lift the decree — requiring that it then be lifted, under the South Korean constitution.
Following the National Assembly’s vote, Yoon said he withdrew the troops that had been deployed to carry out martial law and “will lift martial law as soon as we have a quorum in the cabinet.” The State Council then convened to vote to officially lift it.
The country’s Democratic Party called on Yoon to resign following what it called the “fundamentally invalid” declaration of martial law. Without Yoon resigning, the opposition party worked to enact impeachment proceedings against the president.
Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14, when the National Assembly voted for his impeachment in a 204-85 vote.