South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a new and potentially more robust attempt to arrest him on insurrection charges after a top investigator vowed to do whatever it takes to break a security blockade and take in the impeached leader.

Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol remained defiantly inside his residence resisting arrest for a third day on Thursday, after vowing to "fight" authorities seeking to question him over his failed martial law bid.

Yoon Suk Yeol’s bodyguards thwarted investigators in another tense showdown resulting from his short-lived martial law decree.