South Korean anti-graft investigators were holding on Tuesday for a new court-ordered arrest warrant for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose failed martial law bid threw the country into turmoil.

The former star prosecutor has refused questioning three times over a bungled martial law decree last month which plunged South Korea into its worst political crisis in decades.

As anti-graft officials seek a new warrant from the same court that issued the first order, Yoon remains holed up in his residence surrounded by hundreds of guards preventing his detention.

“The Joint Investigation Headquarters today refiled a warrant with the Seoul Western District Court to extend the arrest warrant for defendant Yoon,” the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) said in a statement late Monday.

“Details regarding the validity period cannot be disclosed”, the CIO added after the initial seven-day warrant expired.

If investigators can detain Yoon, he would become the first sitting president in South Korean history to be arrested.

There was no comment by investigators or the Seoul court on the new warrant being approved by Tuesday afternoon.

However, CIO deputy director Lee Jae-Seung told reporters earlier on Tuesday that the likelihood the court would not grant an extension was “very low.”

Yoon is being investigated on charges of insurrection and, if formally arrested and convicted, faces prison or, at worst, the death penalty.

His lawyers repeatedly said the initial warrant was “unlawful”, pledging to take further legal action against it.

Yoon’s lawyers have argued the CIO lacks the authority to investigate, because insurrection is not included in the list of offences it can probe.

But the likelihood for the reissued warrant to be accepted was “quite high,” said Yun Bok-Nam, president of Lawyers for a Democratic Society, who is not involved in the investigation.

But it may take longer than expected for the warrant to be issued again.

“In the previous instance, it took quite a long time — almost a day and a half,” Yun told AFP.

The CIO is a relatively new force — nearly four years old — with fewer than 100 staff who have yet to prosecute a single case.

“Naturally, they have no prior experience with arrests, let alone something as significant as arresting the president,” Yun said.

“The cooperation of the police is essential”, he added, through the Joint Investigation Headquarters umbrella under which both forces are currently working together.

The country’s opposition Democratic Party said Monday it would submit a legal complaint against acting president Choi Sang-mok for “dereliction of duty” after it asked him to intervene in the case and he did not.

South Korea’s Constitutional Court has slated January 14 for the start of Yoon’s impeachment trial, which would proceed in his absence if he does not attend.

Local media reported the suspended leader is likely to appear on the trial’s opening day, but Yoon’s lawyer told AFP his appearance on that date was still “undecided”.

The court has up to 180 days to determine whether to dismiss Yoon as president or restore his powers.

Former presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye never appeared for their impeachment trials in 2004 and 2016-2017 respectively.

Investigators struggled to arrest Yoon because of a sizable force of guards massed at his home to protect him.

His presidential security service refused to budge during a tense six-hour standoff at his residence on Friday, forcing investigators into a U-turn.

Many of his supporters have also camped outside his residence despite freezing weather.

However, with no warrant active on Tuesday, the scene was calmer on the streets outside, with protests appearing to lull before any further attempt to arrest Yoon.

A huge winter storm sweeping across many states in the US is causing thousands of flights to be delayed or cancelled as residents are gripped by fear of a possible heaviest snowfall in a decade.

Thirty states have been put under a weather alert after a state of emergency was declared in Kentucky, Virginia, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri.

A blast of snow, ice, wind, and plunging temperatures stirred up dangerous travel conditions in the central US on Sunday, blanketing major roadways.

CNN reports that as many as 62 million residents are to be affected when the storm unleashes a barrage of heavy snow, treacherous ice, rain, and severe thunderstorms across a 1,300-mile (2092.1472 kilometres) swath of the US.

“For locations in this region that receive the highest snow totals, it may be the heaviest snowfall in at least a decade,” the National Weather Service said.

Forecasters say the extreme weather is caused by the polar vortex—an area of cold air circling the Arctic.

Usually, the polar vortex stays up around the North Pole, but it can shift and expand, bringing lower temperatures further south than usual.

The polar vortex had been expanding over the US in recent days before the winter storm began to hit on Saturday evening.

The weather service warned that severe thunderstorms with the possibility of tornadoes and hail may occur in some regions over the next few days.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom (UK), some airports in Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham closed off runways after a heavy snowstorm swept through the city.

The UK’s national grid and operators reported power outages across homes in the country.

China is facing a spike in the outbreak of a new strand of infectious respiratory virus.

The virus, identified as human metapneumovirus (HMPV), is a single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus that causes symptoms similar to the common cold and influenza.

HMPV, which comes with severe complications like pneumonia in infants, elderly, and those with weakened immune systems, spreads through respiratory droplets or contact with contaminated surfaces.

Its symptoms include cough, fever, nasal congestion, and fatigue, with an incubation period of three to six days.

The virus was first reported in 2001 in The Netherlands, and has since surged across northern Chinese provinces during the winter season.

This comes barely five years after the world saw the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus which killed nearly seven million people globally.

Hospitals in China are experiencing rise in patients with symptoms of the virus, as health authorities in the country are implementing emergency measures to contain the virus.

While the World Health Organisation (WHO) has not flagged the virus as a global health emergency, the rise in HMPV cases has prompted authorities to boost monitoring systems.

Mao Ning, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Friday that the disease is less severe than COVID-19 virus.

“Respiratory infections tend to peak during the winter season,” Ning said.

“The diseases appear to be less severe and spread with a smaller scale compared to the previous year.”

Unlike COVID-19, there is no vaccine for HMPV yet, its treatment involves managing symptoms.