South Korea's presidential guards and military troops prevented authorities from arresting impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday in a tense six-hour stand-off inside Yoon's compound in the heart of Seoul.

Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his Dec. 3 martial law bid that stunned South Korea and led to the first arrest warrant to be issued for a sitting president.

"It was judged that it was virtually impossible to execute the arrest warrant due to the ongoing stand-off," the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said in a statement.

CIO officials and police evaded hundreds of Yoon supporters who gathered in pre-dawn hours near his residence on Friday, who adopted the "Stop the Steal" slogans popularised by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's supporters, to block the arrest.