South Korean anti-graft investigators secured a new court-ordered arrest warrant Tuesday for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose failed martial law bid threw the country into turmoil.
The former star prosecutor has refused questioning three times after his bungled December 3 martial law decree plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.
As anti-graft officials and police got a fresh warrant from the same court that issued the first order, Yoon was believed to be holed up in his residence surrounded by hundreds of guards preventing his detention.
"The arrest warrant re-requested for the suspect Yoon was issued today in the afternoon," the Joint Investigation Headquarters said in a statement.
Seoul Western District Court declined to confirm when contacted by AFP.
The Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), which is leading the probe into the president, has kept secret the length of the second warrant it requested after an initial seven-day warrant expired at the end of Monday.
If investigators are able to detain Yoon, he would become the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested.
But they would only have 48 hours to either request another arrest warrant, in order to keep him in detention, or be forced to release him.
Yoon's legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
But after news of the fresh warrant broke, Yoon supporters said they would descend on his residence in the capital Seoul to rally around the impeached leader.
"We just heard that the new warrant was issued by the court. We are heading to Yoon's residence right now. Those living in the countryside will join us in the early morning as well," Rhee Kang-san, 35, told AFP.
Opposition party lawmaker Youn Kun-young told local media Yoon's residence was "turning into a fortress," claiming guards were installing barbed wire and vehicle barricades.