Yoon, who has already been suspended from duty by lawmakers, would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested if the warrant is carried out.
“The execution of the arrest warrant for President Yoon Suk Yeol has begun,“ said the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), which is probing Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law, with its officials and police seen entering the president’s residence.
But they were “blocked by a military unit inside” after entering, the Yonhap news agency reported.
It had been unclear whether the Presidential Security Service, which still protects Yoon as the country's sitting head of state, would comply with investigators' warrants.
Yoon's legal team decried the attempt to execute the arrest warrant, vowing to take further legal action against the move.
Dozens of police buses and hundreds of uniformed police lined the street outside the compound in central Seoul, AFP reporters saw.
Yoon has been holed up inside the residence since a court approved the warrant to detain him earlier this week, vowing to “fight” authorities seeking to question him over his failed martial law bid.
South Korean media have reported that CIO officials want to arrest Yoon and take him to their office in Gwacheon near Seoul for questioning.
After staging chaotic protests Thursday, a handful of Yoon's die-hard supporters, which include far-right YouTube personalities and evangelical Christian preachers, had camped outside his compound all night -- some holding all-night prayer sessions.
Pro-Yoon protester Rhee Kang-san told AFP many were “rooting for the president” to survive the arrest attempt.
Yoon has doubled down on claims the opposition was in league with South Korea's communist enemies.
Yoon’s legal team had already filed for an injunction to a constitutional court to block the warrant, calling the arrest order “an unlawful and invalid act”, and also submitted an objection to the Seoul court that ordered it.
Along with the summons, a Seoul court issued a search warrant for his official residence and other locations, a CIO official told AFP.
South Korean officials have previously failed to execute similar arrest warrants for lawmakers -- in 2000 and 2004 -- due to party members and supporters blocking police for the seven days the warrants were valid.
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