On Thursday, a South Korean court handed down a life sentence, including hard labor, to former president Yoon Suk Yeol. This judgment was for his unsuccessful attempt to declare martial law in December 2024. He was found guilty of orchestrating an insurrection, marking him as the first democratically elected leader in the nation’s history to receive such a severe prison term.
South Korean legal statutes stipulate three potential penalties for the offense of leading an insurrection: capital punishment, life imprisonment with forced labor, or life imprisonment without forced labor.
The prosecution had requested the death penalty, asserting that Yoon caused “a serious subversion of constitutional order” by deploying military forces to encircle the parliament and attempting to apprehend political adversaries during the six-hour emergency.
Throughout the proceedings, Yoon asserted his innocence, labeling the inquiry a “political plot.” He claimed his declaration of martial law was intended to warn the populace about what he termed an unconstitutional parliamentary dictatorship orchestrated by the then-opposition Democratic party.
Without presenting any proof, Yoon accused the opposition of electoral misconduct and asserted that they had crippled his administration through budgetary reductions and impeachment efforts.
He contended that he deployed a small number of mostly unarmed troops, with no intention of suppressing the legislature. His defense team stated: “There was no deliberate effort to undermine constitutional order, nor was there any disturbance.”
The judgment was delivered 14 months following the insurrection, an event that represented the gravest challenge to South Korean democracy in many decades.
The accusations originate from the evening of December 3, 2024, when prosecutors contend Yoon tried to employ military might to incapacitate the legislative body, detain political rivals, and take over the national election commission. Yoon asserted he was eliminating “anti-state elements” and, without proof, alleged electoral fraud.
Mere hours after the declaration, 190 legislators breached military and police barriers to pass an urgent resolution invalidating martial law. Parliament impeached Yoon within an 11-day period, and the constitutional court dismissed him from his position four months subsequently.
Thursday’s ruling follows a sequence of interconnected judgments that formally affirmed the events of December 3 as constituting an act of insurrection.
In January, former prime minister Han Duck-soo received a 23-year prison term in a judgment that characterized the martial law attempt as a “self-coup” by an elected authority, deemed more perilous than conventional rebellions. This sentence significantly surpassed the 15-year term sought by prosecutors, signaling the judiciary’s readiness to administer stringent punishments.
On February 12, former interior minister Lee Sang-min received a seven-year jail sentence for his involvement in the insurrection, which included transmitting Yoon’s directives to cut off electricity and water supply to various media organizations.
According to legal specialists, these judgments established a sentencing precedent that increased the probability of the maximum penalty for Yoon.
Former president Park Geun-hye was initially handed a cumulative 32-year prison sentence for corruption and associated crimes in 2018. However, her term was reduced upon appeal and subsequently nullified by a presidential pardon in 2021.
Back in 1996, military strongmen Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were sentenced to death and 22 and a half years in prison, respectively, for their involvement in a 1979 coup and the subsequent Gwangju massacre. These sentences were later lessened on appeal, and both individuals ultimately received pardons.
Historically, every South Korean president incarcerated has eventually received a pardon.