South Korean investigators asked prosecutors to indict the country's detained President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived imposition of martial law last month, as it accused him of rebellion, abuse of power and obstruction of parliament on Thursday.

He has been incarcerated for the past week, while investigators probe his botched attempt to impose martial law in early December.

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol has spent his first night incarcerated as a pre-trial inmate at the Seoul Detention Centre after a court issued a formal detention warrant on Sunday to hold him for up to 20 days.