New Delhi: Former president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, was sentenced to 30 years in jail Friday over charges of sending drones into Pyongyang, North Korea to create a pretext for his failed martial law declaration in 2024.
The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon and three of his top defence officials guilty of treason and abuse of power. “The defendants used the guise of a military operation to induce provocations from North Korea with the aim of creating a state of emergency,” the court said Friday.
Prosecutors asserted that Yoon held the “greatest responsibility” in ordering drones into the North Korean capital in October 2024 to provoke Pyongyang and set the preconditions that would justify his declaration of martial law in December 2024.
North Korea accused Seoul of sending drones that allegedly dropped propaganda leaflets all over Pyongyang—a move that led to significantly heightened military tensions between the two nations that have technically remained at war since 1953.
Yoon declared martial law in South Korea on the night of 3 December, claiming it was necessary to protect the nation from “anti-state forces” with connections to North Korea. He proceeded to issue decrees that prohibited political activity and ordered the military to censor all media. The martial law only lasted for six hours as lawmakers swiftly voted it down in an emergency session at the South Korean National Assembly.
The move came at a time where Yoon’s approval ratings had drastically fallen and led to widespread protests across Seoul. He was impeached on 14 December 2024 and is currently serving a life-sentence in prison for leading an insurrection linked to his martial law attempt. He has appealed against the insurrection conviction and has maintained that he declared martial law “solely for the sake of the nation”.
Yoon’s lawyers have also denied claims that he ordered and approved the drone flights into Pyongyang, stating that this was unrelated to the martial law declaration and was instead “a legitimate act of self-defence” in response to North Korea launching hundreds of trash-filled balloons across the border into the South in 2024.
Yoon’s chaotic declaration of martial law sent one of Asia’s strongest democracies into months of political turmoil, which concluded only after a snap election was decisively won by the leader of the liberal opposition and South Korea’s current president, Lee Jae-Myung.
(Edited by Niyati Kothiyal)
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