President Yoon Suk Yeol and other individuals implicated in his short-lived imposition of martial law failed to attend an afternoon hearing at the National Assembly on Wednesday despite being ordered to do so by a parliamentary committee.

Since police broke up a crowd of Yoon's supporters blocking the court gate in the morning, thousands of supporters surrounded the court after the hearing began at around 2 p.m. (0500 GMT) behind a police barricade chanting "release the president".

China will make every effort to rescue Chinese nationals who fell foul of scam operations luring them to countries including Myanmar, the public security ministry said late on Wednesday.