Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Friday over the deployment of military drones into North Korea, an operation prosecutors said was intended to justify his ill-fated martial law declaration in 2024.
The drone flights, which Pyongyang said involved dropping propaganda leaflets, sparked heightened military tensions between the two Koreas in October 2024. Special prosecutors in April argued that Yoon’s actions had “fabricated wartime conditions” and undermined national security.
A spokesperson for the Seoul Central District Court told AFP that Yoon had been “given 30 years in jail” for charges related to the drone operation, without providing further details. In February, he received a life sentence for leading an insurrection to “paralyse” the National Assembly with his martial law declaration.
Prosecutors claimed the drone operation escalated tensions with North Korea and resulted in the leak of classified information, including military force capabilities, after some drones crashed, according to Yonhap news agency. They had sought a 30-year sentence for the ex-president over the flights.
Yoon has appealed the insurrection verdict, maintaining that martial law was imposed “solely for the sake of the nation.” His legal team denied authorising or approving the drone flights, insisting the operation was a legitimate self-defence response to North Korean balloons carrying waste across the border. Lawyers dismissed the prosecution’s claims as “speculative and false.”
The drone incidents remain a flashpoint in inter-Korean tensions. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret earlier this year after officials were found to have conducted drone operations into the North. North Korea’s Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, called Lee’s statement “wise behaviour,” but hopes for rapprochement have since faded.
Yoon, currently in custody facing multiple trials, had triggered nationwide protests and market panic with a late-night televised address in December 2024, declaring martial law for roughly six hours before lawmakers voted it down in an emergency session.
