South Korea has wrapped the first week of the new year in a state of roiling political turmoil.

Its impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol remains holed up inside his official residence, his security forces having blocked efforts by corruption investigators to arrest him for questioning over his failed bid to impose martial law on December 3.

“Stop the steal!” A supporter of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans during a rally to oppose his impeachment near the presidential residence in Seoul.Credit: AP

The extraordinary events are the latest in a month-long saga during which Yoon’s presidential powers were suspended when he was impeached by the opposition-dominated parliament late last year.

The conservative leader, who has invited comparisons to Donald Trump for embracing the US president-elect’s denunciation of negative media coverage as “fake news”, is now facing a criminal probe on whether he committed insurrection by sending armed troops into the parliament during his short-lived martial law decree.

On Monday, as the arrest warrant’s midnight deadline approached, investigators sought an extension.

A banner demanding the arrest of impeached South Korean President Yoon near the presidential residence in Seoul.Credit: AP

It is still unclear what will happen next. The country is in uncharted territory. Never before has there been an attempt to arrest a sitting president, let alone the spectacle of the Presidential Security Service (PSS) leading........

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