The police attempted to raid the presidential safe house and the Presidential Security Service(PSS) headquarters on Monday as part of their investigation into the December 3 martial law incident, but retreated after an hours-long standoff.

According to police officials, investigators from the special investigation unit arrived at the safe house in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, at around 1:35 p.m. and presented a warrant to secure CCTV footage.

But they withdrew at around 5:10 p.m. after the PSS handed a written statement refusing to submit, citing a legal clause requiring permission to raid locations housing classified military or official information. 

Investigators also went to the PSS headquarters within the presidential office in Yongsan, which keeps the server for the CCTV footage from the safe house.

The police asked the PSS to hand over the CCTV footage and requested an answer by official document. 

The investigation team did not obtain a new search warrant, and a representative of the team explained that the existing warrant has not yet expired.

It is the second time that the raid failed, after the first attempt on December 27.