SEOUL — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison on Friday, finding that he conspired to send military drones over North Korea in 2024 in an effort to provoke tensions and lay the groundwork for his short-lived declaration of martial law.
The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon and his former defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, guilty of abusing their power and aiding an adversary, sentencing each to 30 years. The court said the two had orchestrated drone flights over Pyongyang in October 2024 from the outset, seeking to provoke North Korea into armed retaliation that could serve as a pretext for emergency measures at home.
North Korea accused Seoul in October 2024 of flying drones over its capital on three occasions to drop propaganda leaflets, calling the incursions a serious provocation. South Korea's military said at the time that it could neither confirm nor deny the claims. Tensions rose sharply but did not lead to military clashes.
Yoon denied wrongdoing. His lawyers criticized the ruling, arguing that the drone flights were a response to North Korea sending thousands of trash-carrying balloons across the border earlier in 2024, and that they were unrelated to martial law. The defense said Yoon neither ordered nor later approved the operation, and contended that a guilty verdict would undermine South Korea's security interests.
The sentence adds to the legal reckoning facing Yoon, once the country's top prosecutor before he won the presidency. In February, the same court sentenced him to life in prison for leading an insurrection through his December 2024 martial law bid, a ruling that was lighter than the death penalty sought by special prosecutors. Friday's drone case was decided separately.
Yoon set off South Korea's most serious political crisis in decades when he imposed martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, and sent troops toward the National Assembly. He was impeached, arrested and removed from office after the Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment, triggering a snap election won by President Lee Jae Myung. Yoon, who is already in custody, can appeal Friday's lower-court ruling.
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