South Korea’s acting leader has accepted the resignation of the chief of the presidential security service, Park Jong-joon, as he faced police questioning over how his forces blocked law enforcement efforts to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol last week.

Meanwhile, criminal investigators looking into Yoon's alleged insurrection are said to be "mulling their next move", according to Bloomberg. Yoon remains "holed up at his hillside residence" following last week's six-hour stand-off between police and the Presidential Security Service, led by Park, said Reuters.

South Korean law enforcement officials have requested a court warrant to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol as they investigate whether his short-lived martial law decree this month amounted to rebellion.

Support for South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol is growing while approval for the opposition is falling, ahead of an anticipated second attempt to arrest Mr Yoon over his short-lived imposition of martial law in December.

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Friday portrayed impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law bid as "shocking" and "wrong," but voiced confidence that "structurally," the South Korea-U.

Yoon's presidential powers were suspended following his impeachment by the opposition-controlled National Assembly on Dec. 14, with lawmakers accusing him of rebellion. The Constitutional Court is now deliberating whether to uphold the impeachment and remove him from office permanently or dismiss the charges and restore his authority.

South Korea's Presidential Security Service chief resigned Friday and acting President Choi Sang-mok accepted it. President Yoon Suk Yeol remains in his fortified residence as law enforcement seeks to arrest him.

Thousands of rival South Korean protesters have been rallying in the capital Seoul as impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol continued to resist arrest following his bungled martial law decree. Pro-Yoon social media accounts have repeatedly shared an image they falsely claimed showed a Chinese flag at a rally calling for his arrest and detention.

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya will travel to South Korea on Monday to shore up security cooperation between the East Asian neighbours and their mutual U.S. ally that is meant to counter China's growing regional power.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok faces not only the task of steering a shaky economy and rebuilding confidence among global allies but simply staying in his job amid the worst political crisis in decades.

The case, involving an inquiry into a marine’s death, had stoked political tensions long before President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment last month.