South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has been banned from leaving the country over a failed attempt at imposing martial law, a justice ministry official says, amid growing calls for him to step down and a deepening leadership crisis.
Yoon has apologised for the botched attempt and said he was leaving his political and legal fate to his ruling People Power Party but has not resigned.
Local media reported he was the subject of a criminal investigation.
The defence ministry said on Monday Yoon was still legally commander in chief.
However, his grip on power was in question with dissent growing among senior military officers and his party saying it would establish a task force to handle his eventual resignation.
Asked what actions had been taken against the embattled president, Oh Dong-woon, head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, told a parliamentary hearing he had ordered a ban on foreign travel for Yoon.
While Yoon survived an impeachment vote in parliament on Saturday, his party's decision to delegate presidential authority to the prime minister has plunged the key US ally into a constitutional crisis.
Yoon has refused calls to resign - including from within his ruling party - and his future looked more uncertain at the weekend when Yonhap news agency reported he was under criminal investigation for alleged treason.
Prosecutors on Sunday arrested ex-defence minister Kim Yong-hyun over his alleged role in the declaration of martial law on December 3, Yonhap reported.
Yoon gave the military sweeping emergency powers on December 3 to root out what he called "anti-state forces" and obstructionist political opponents.
He rescinded the order six hours later after parliament defied military and police cordons to vote unanimously against the decree.
The opposition Democratic Party wants Yoon stripped of authority to control the military and arrested, along with any military officials implicated in the martial law fiasco.
Yoon's party had established a task force to deal with "political stabilisation after martial law and (Yoon's) orderly early resignation", a spokesperson said on Monday.
Party leader Han Dong-hoon said on Sunday the president would be excluded from foreign and other state affairs.
He said Prime Minister Han Duck-soo would manage government affairs until Yoon eventually stepped aside - a proposal the opposition said was unconstitutional.
It says Yoon must be impeached or resign and face legal prosecution and has vowed to table another impeachment bill on Saturday.
Opposition Leader Lee Jae-myung said on Monday the political crisis threatened to irreversibly harm Asia's fourth-largest economy - a major global supplier of memory chips.
South Korea's finance ministry and regulators said they would deploy contingency plans and boost liquidity by the end of December to stabilise financial markets.
Yoon's decision to declare emergency rule and grant the military sweeping powers stirred public protests and alarmed Seoul's allies.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin scrapped plans to travel to South Korea and Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his South Korean counterpart, saying he expected the democratic process to prevail.
The US has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War.
