A former South Korean president has been convicted of sending drones to North Korea under martial law
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Ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and a former defense minister were sentenced to 30 years in prison on Friday in a case that says Yoon ordered drone flights over Pyongyang in 2024 to increase tensions with North Korea and justify declaring martial law at home.
The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon and former defense minister Kim Yong Hyun guilty of aiding the enemy and abusing their power, saying they wanted to provoke North Korea to launch an armed attack or other serious retaliation against South Korea to create a national emergency. It said the moves hurt South Korea’s military objectives by exposing its capabilities, undermining its ability to conduct future operations and prompting North Korea to strengthen its defense posture.
The same court previously sentenced Yoon to life in prison for treason for temporarily imposing martial law in December 2024.
North Korea accused Seoul of flying planes to Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets three times in October 2024. Kim, who was South Korea’s defense minister at the time, flatly denied it before the Defense Ministry said it could not confirm or deny the allegations. Tensions escalated but did not lead to armed conflict.
Andrew Chang explains why Yoon Suk Yeol, the former president of South Korea, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of leading a revolutionary group for his 2024 declaration of martial law.
Yoon’s lawyers contested Friday’s decision and criticized it, saying the drone flights were a response to North Korea flying thousands of balloons carrying garbage into the South as early as 2024.
Investigators led by special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk sought a 30-year prison sentence for Yoon, accusing him of trying to create a war-like situation between the Koreas while orchestrating a violent crackdown to remove his political opponents and “seize” power. They had sought a 25-year prison sentence for Kim, Yoon’s main confidant who helped organize and mobilize forces to carry out Yoon’s martial law declaration.
Yoon continued the announcement on the night of December 3, 2024, delivering a televised speech in which he accused liberal lawmakers of being “anti-national” forces sympathetic to North Korea. He cited a number of grievances, particularly the opposition’s criticism of senior officials and the downgrading of his government’s budget bill.
Martial law lasted for about six hours until lawmakers broke through a military and police deadlock in the National Assembly and voted to repeal it, forcing Yoon’s cabinet to withdraw the measure.
Yoon was immediately impeached, suspended, and formally removed by the Constitutional Court. He was arrested in July 2025 and many cases are still ongoing.
The verdict in the most serious case, sedition, was appealed by Yoon and prosecutors, who were seeking the death penalty.
