South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol sentenced to life in prison for insurrection over 2024 martial law move
SEOUL — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison after finding him guilty of leading an insurrection when he declared martial law in December 2024, a dramatic coda to a crisis that rattled the country’s democracy and revived memories of past military rule.
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Presiding Judge Ji Gwi-yeon said Yoon deployed troops to the National Assembly in an effort to silence political opponents who had stymied his agenda. “The declaration of martial law resulted in enormous social costs, and it is difficult to find any indication that the defendant has expressed remorse for that,” Ji said, announcing a life term. Former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun received 30 years for his role.
Prosecutors had urged the court to impose the death penalty during January hearings, calling Yoon’s actions an insurrection “driven by a lust for power aimed at dictatorship and long-term rule.” South Korea maintains an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment and last carried out executions in 1997.
Yoon, 65, made the martial law announcement in a televised late-night address on Dec. 3, 2024, claiming drastic measures were needed to root out “anti-state forces” and counter vague threats of North Korean influence. He moved to suspend civilian government and initiate military rule. Lawmakers convened an emergency session and lifted martial law about six hours later, after staff barricaded parliamentary doors with office furniture to keep armed troops at bay. The shock move sparked flash protests, rattled financial markets and caught key allies, including the United States, off guard.
Outside the Seoul courthouse ahead of the verdict, thousands of supporters rallied with placards reading “Yoon Great Again” and “Drop the charge against President Yoon.” A blue prison bus believed to be transporting the former leader drew loud cries as it entered the complex. Police in neon jackets massed to prevent unrest, parking buses to form a makeshift barricade.
Yoon has consistently denied wrongdoing, arguing he acted to “safeguard freedom” and restore constitutional order against what he called an opposition-led “legislative dictatorship.” He has been held in solitary confinement while fighting multiple criminal cases and was previously handed a five-year sentence on lesser charges. His wife, Kim Keon Hee, received a 20-month sentence last month on unrelated bribery charges.
Yoon’s attorney, Yoon Gap-geun, criticized the ruling as a “pre-determined conclusion set by the prosecutors” and suggested an appeal might not be worth pursuing. Any appeal must be filed within seven days. It is unclear when Yoon might be eligible for parole; in South Korea, inmates serving life terms can typically apply after about 20 years. He will enter a prison system widely described as chronically overcrowded—a stark contrast to the high-profile trajectory that took him from star prosecutor to the presidency.
The judgment caps a political convulsion in a country long viewed as a stable democracy in Asia. The brief imposition of martial law evoked the era of coups between 1960 and 1980 and forced a reckoning over civil-military boundaries. In a post on X, President Lee Jae Myung, the liberal who won a snap election in June after Yoon’s removal, praised the public’s nonviolent resistance. “It was possible because it was the Republic of Korea,” he wrote, adding that the nation’s response could serve as an example for history. His post linked to discussion of academics urging a Nobel Peace Prize nomination for the Korean public for confronting troops and police without violence.
Footage distributed by local media showed a bus carrying Yoon arriving at the courthouse for sentencing. Police maintained a tight security cordon as the verdict was delivered.
The case now shifts to appellate courts, but the immediate consequences are profound: a former president facing life behind bars, a defense minister sentenced to decades, and a political class grappling with the limits of power in a system designed to prevent a return to the past.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
