Share and Follow
On Friday, South Korean prosecutors called for a 30-year prison sentence for the former President Yoon Suk Yeol. The charges against him involve allegedly escalating tensions with North Korea in 2024 by ordering drone flights over Pyongyang, actions intended to justify the imposition of martial law domestically.
Yoon faces charges related to aiding an adversary and abusing his presidential powers. These charges are part of a broader array of indictments against the conservative ex-leader, stemming from his brief enforcement of martial law in South Korea in December 2024.
The prosecution’s request for Yoon’s imprisonment marks a significant development in the trial proceedings at Seoul Central District Court. Led by special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk, the investigative team accused Yoon and his senior defense officials of orchestrating drone incursions into North Korea, which occurred roughly two months before Yoon declared martial law. The prosecution argued that Yoon framed the country’s liberals as sympathizers with North Korea, depicting them as “anti-state” elements.
Yoon’s defense team, which has consistently refuted these charges, has yet to respond to the prosecution’s latest sentencing demand.
Previously, in February, the court handed Yoon a life sentence after finding him guilty on the more severe charge of rebellion. Both Yoon and the prosecution, which had pushed for a death penalty, have appealed this verdict.
Cho’s team in a statement Friday claimed that Yoon tried to create a warlike situation between the Koreas while plotting an authoritarian push to remove his political opponents and “monopolize and extend his power.”
Prosecutors are seeking a 25-year prison term for Yoon’s former defense minister, Kim Yong Hyun, a key confidant who helped plan and mobilize forces for the martial law declaration.
North Korea accused Seoul of flying drones over its capital, Pyongyang, to drop propaganda leaflets three times in October 2024. Kim initially made a vague denial, but Seoul’s Defense Ministry later switched to saying it couldn’t confirm whether or not the claims were true. Tensions with North Korea rose sharply at the time.
Yoon proceeded with his late night martial law declaration on Dec. 3, 2024, delivering a televised address in which he blasted liberals over a range of issues, but largely over their impeachments of his top officials and cuts to his government’s budget bill.
The decree lasted about six hours until a quorum of lawmakers broke through a blockade of heavily armed soldiers and police Yoon had deployed to the National Assembly. They then voted to overturn it, forcing his Cabinet to lift the measure.
Yoon was suspended from office on Dec. 14, 2024, after being impeached by the liberal-led legislature and was formally removed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025. He was arrested in July that year and has been undergoing various criminal trials since.
Though brief, Yoon’s martial law decree threw the country into a severe political crisis, paralyzing politics and high-level diplomacy and rattling financial markets. The turmoil eased only after his liberal rival Lee Jae Myung won an early presidential election in June last year.
Shortly after taking office, Lee approved legislation that launched independent investigations into Yoon’s martial law stunt and other criminal allegations involving him, his wife and associates.