[News Today] YOON’S WARRANT EXECUTION BEGINS

[LEAD]
Early this morning, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials began executing an arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol. A standoff persists at the presidential residence, with ongoing tensions between investigators and the Presidential Security Service.

[REPORT]
A joint investigation team involving the police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials(CIO) marched inside the main gate of the presidential residence at around 8 a.m. Friday.

As standoff with the presidential security team continued, more personnel were deployed to the site an hour later at around 9:05 a.m.

Some 30 officials from the CIO and 120 police officers were mobilized and about 80 of them entered the residence.

Outside, more police officers were seen trying to enter the compound.

Amid the continued confrontation, investigators moved past the first and second blockade lines at around 9:50 a.m. and approached the building of the residence.

They faced the security team protecting the president in the closest proximity.

Investigators presented the arrest warrant to Presidential Security Service chief Park Jong-joon at 10:10 a.m. but he reportedly denied access to the residence, citing related regulations and did not allow any search to take place.

Five hours after the warrant execution began, a standoff continued in the area surrounding the presidential residence.

Some 27-hundred officers of 45 riot police units are on standby in the vicinity to maintain order and prepare against a contingency situation.

Also near the residence, around 12-hundred Yoon supporters, according to unofficial police estimates, are believed to have gathered with the aim of blocking the president’s arrest.

With crowds packing the area, Hannamdaero road is currently partially closed to traffic.