South Korea's acting president Choi Sang-mok said on Tuesday he hoped for bilateral relations with the United States to develop more reciprocally under the Trump administration.

South Korea will tighten regulations on stock market listings to improve the quality and competitiveness, the financial regulator said on Tuesday, in the latest move by authorities aimed at making the domestic stock market more attractive to investors.

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.

South Korea’s early trade data showed weak export growth so far this month, as headwinds grow for the trade-reliant economy with political turmoil rumbling on at home and Donald Trump’s return to power clouding the outlook for global commerce.

The South Korean economy barely grew last quarter as political chaos weighed on consumer spending, according to a Reuters poll of economists who expect the Bank of Korea to cut interest rates next month following a surprise hold last week.

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".

Law enforcement authorities have requested a warrant to formally arrest impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is spending his third day at a detention center after his lawyers failed in a last-minute attempt to secure his release.

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was arrested Sunday, just days after being apprehended at his home in Seoul. He faces possible imprisonment for declaring martial law last month.

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol refused on Monday to be questioned by investigators under a probe into whether he committed insurrection, as dozens of his supporters faced arrest over a violent rampage on a court building.

South Korea has decided to extend to April 18 the shutdown of Muan international airport where a Jeju Air passenger jet crashed last month, the transport ministry said on Saturday.

Yoon Suk Yeol this week became South Korea’s first sitting president to be detained. The Seoul Detention Center is a far cry from his official residence.