South Korea’s ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives to attend his trial on the Seoul Central District Court docket in Seoul, South Korea, Might 12, 2025.
Ahn Younger-joon/Pool AP
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Ahn Younger-joon/Pool AP
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol and his former protection minister have been sentenced to 30 years in jail Friday in a case alleging Yoon ordered drone flights over Pyongyang in 2024 to intensify tensions with North Korea and justify declaring martial regulation at residence.
The Seoul Central District Court docket discovered Yoon and his ex-defense minister, Kim Yong Hyun, responsible of aiding an adversary and abusing their energy, saying they sought to impress North Korea into launching armed assaults or different severe provocations in opposition to South Korea to fabricate a nationwide emergency. It mentioned the strikes harmed South Korea’s navy pursuits by exposing its capabilities, undermining its potential to conduct future operations and prompting North Korea to strengthen its protection posture.
The identical courtroom earlier sentenced Yoon to life in jail for a insurrection conviction over his short-lived imposition of martial regulation in December 2024.
North Korea accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets thrice in October 2024. Kim, who was South Korea’s protection minister on the time, issued a obscure denial earlier than the Protection Ministry mentioned it may neither verify nor deny the allegations. Tensions rose sharply however didn’t result in any navy clashes.
Yoon’s legal professionals criticized the newest ruling, saying the drone flights have been a response to North Korea flying hundreds of trash-carrying balloons into the South earlier in 2024. They argued {that a} responsible verdict would undermine South Korea’s safety pursuits however didn’t instantly say whether or not they would attraction.
Investigators led by particular prosecutor Cho Eun-suk had sought a 30-year jail time period for Yoon, accusing him of making an attempt to create a warlike state of affairs between the Koreas whereas plotting an authoritarian push to take away his political opponents and “monopolize” energy. That they had sought a 25-year jail time period for Kim Yong Hyun, a key confidant of Yoon who helped plan and mobilize forces for Yoon’s martial regulation declaration.
Yoon proceeded with the declaration late within the night time of Dec. 3, 2024, delivering a televised deal with during which he accused liberal lawmakers of being North Korea-sympathizing “anti-state” forces. He cited a spread of grievances, however significantly the opposition’s impeachments of senior officers and cuts to his authorities’s price range invoice.
Martial regulation lasted about six hours till lawmakers broke by way of a blockade of troopers and police on the Nationwide Meeting and voted to overturn it, forcing Yoon’s Cupboard to raise the measure.
Yoon was rapidly suspended from workplace, impeached and formally eliminated by the Constitutional Court docket. He was arrested in July 2025 and a number of other felony trial are ongoing.
The decision in probably the most severe case, of insurrection, has been appealed each by Yoon and prosecutors, who had sought a dying sentence.
