Published on 12/6/2026
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Last update: 10:00 (Mecca time)
On Friday, a South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk-yul to 30 years in prison on charges related to his issuing an order for military drones to enter North Korean territory.
Prosecutors said the move was intended to create a pretext to declare martial law in December 2024.
The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty of aiding the enemy and abuse of power, saying he hatched the conspiracy from the beginning to carry out the incursion in October 2024.
Prosecutors also explained that this operation led to an escalation of tensions with North Korea and caused the leak of classified information, including details about the country’s military capabilities, following the crash of the drones, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The decision adds to a series of rulings against the ousted conservative president, once South Korea’s attorney general, whose order to briefly impose martial law plunged Asia’s fourth-largest economy into its deepest political crisis in decades.
Ward denied
On the other hand, Yoon denied any wrongdoing regarding the drone incursion. His lawyers said that he did not order the operation, nor did he approve of it later, and denied its connection to martial law. They stated that it was a response to North Korea’s launching of balloons stuffed with garbage across the border over a period of months.
In February, a court sentenced Yoon to life imprisonment after convicting him of leading a mutiny in connection with an attempt to impose martial law. He was removed from his position last year after the Constitutional Court upheld the decision to dismiss him, and the country subsequently held early elections in which liberal Lee Jae-myung won the presidency.
It is noteworthy that the issue of sending drones to Pyongyang is a point of tension in relations between the two Koreas, which are still practically in a state of war, as their conflict ended in 1953 with a truce and not a peace treaty.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung expressed his regret earlier this year after an official investigation revealed that government officials sent marches to the North in January, something that Pyongyang initially seemed to welcome before returning and describing its southern neighbor as “the most hostile enemy state.”
