A South Korean court sentenced impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison for ordering drone flights over North Korean airspace in 2024. The court ruled that the unmanned aircraft operations were part of a broader scheme to heighten tensions with North Korea and create justification for declaring martial law.
Yoon's former defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, received the same 30-year sentence in connection with the drone operations. Both men were convicted of deliberately attempting to stir up instability on the Korean Peninsula as part of an effort to consolidate authoritarian power.
The drone incursions took place in late 2024, months before Yoon's controversial martial law declaration in December. On December 3, 2024, Yoon deployed troops to the National Assembly, allegedly ordering them to prevent lawmakers from voting to lift his martial law declaration. The standoff lasted six hours before 190 members of parliament broke through military cordons to pass an emergency resolution, forcing Yoon to back down. Parliament impeached him on December 14, and the Constitutional Court formally removed him from office in April 2025.
According to prosecutors, Yoon had begun planning the operation before October 2023 to "monopolise power through long-term rule." He strategically placed military personnel in key positions ahead of the declaration. Documented plans found in notebooks and mobile phone memos allegedly included preparing to torture election officials into confessing to fabricated election fraud and cutting power and water to critical media outlets.
The 30-year sentence represents one piece of an unprecedented legal assault on the former president. Yoon faces eight separate criminal trials spanning charges from abuse of power to election law violations. His first verdict is expected on January 16 in an arrest obstruction case, where prosecutors have demanded 10 years imprisonment.
The insurrection case itself remains pending, with prosecutors having demanded the death penalty. Under South Korea's criminal code, insurrection ringleader charges carry only three possible sentences: death, life imprisonment with labor, or life imprisonment without labor. The Constitutional Court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on February 19.
The case marks the first insurrection-related charges against a former president since 1996, when military dictators Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were tried for their roles in a 1979 coup and subsequent massacre. South Korea has not executed anyone since 1997 and is classified as a "de facto abolitionist" state by human rights groups.
Yoon was arrested in January 2025, becoming the first sitting Korean president taken into custody. He was briefly released in March after a court cancelled his detention, but was re-arrested in July and remains imprisoned. His wife, Kim Keon Hee, faces her own trial on stock manipulation and bribery charges carrying a prosecutorial demand of 15 years imprisonment.