An independent special counsel team of South Korea on Thursday halted its second attempt to bring in former ousted President Yoon Suk-yeol for questioning.

In a short message, special counsel Min Joong-ki's team said that it suspended the execution of an arrest warrant against Yoon at the Seoul Detention Center in the morning after its attempt for about one hour and 15 minutes as his stubborn refusal caused concerns of injury.

Six days ago, the counsel team attempted to bring him in for interrogation, but it failed after Yoon in underwear laid down on the cell floor to reject the first arrest attempt.

Yoon has been kept in custody at the detention center since July 10 on insurrection charge following his short-lived martial law imposition last December.

The impeached president repeatedly defied the special counsel's summons to appear for questioning, and an arrest warrant was issued on July 31. The warrant was scheduled to be effective until Thursday.

The ousted leader and his wife were suspected of receiving free opinion polls from self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun ahead of the 2022 presidential election in exchange for the illegal nomination of a former People Power Party lawmaker in a parliamentary by-election later that year.

Yoon was also suspected of making false statements during the 2021 presidential primaries about his wife's alleged involvement in a stock price manipulation, which concerns an election law violation.