Former President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during the rebellion trial at the Seoul Central District Court on December 29, 2025. Courtesy of the Seoul Central District Court
Former President Yoon Suk-yul is scheduled to receive the first ruling on Thursday on whether the imposition of martial law in 2024 constitutes rebellion after special prosecutors recommended the death penalty.
The sentencing hearing is scheduled to be held at the Seoul Central District Court at 3 p.m. with the jailed former president in attendance and the proceedings broadcast live on national television.
Yoon was indicted in January last year on charges of leading a rebellion by briefly imposing martial law on December 3, 2024, which lasted six hours.
He is accused of mobilizing troops and police to close down the National Assembly complex with the aim of preventing lawmakers from voting to reject his decree, and ordering the arrest of the Speaker of the National Assembly and leaders of the then ruling party and major opposition parties, among other things.
According to the indictment, Yoon conspired with former Defense Minister Kim Young-hyun and others to organize riots aimed at subverting the Constitution and illegally declaring martial law in the absence of war or a similar national emergency.
During the final session of the trial last month, special counsel Cho Eun Suk’s team requested the death penalty for the former president, saying he deserved the maximum punishment for declaring martial law “for the purpose of remaining in power for a long period by seizing the judiciary and legislative power.”
“The nature of the crime is serious because it mobilized material resources that should have been used solely for the benefit of the national group,” the team said.
Yoon reiterated his claim of innocence in his latest statement, saying the president’s exercise of his constitutional emergency power cannot constitute rebellion.
“It was not a military dictatorship oppressing citizens, but rather an attempt to protect freedom and sovereignty and revive the constitutional order,” he said.
Under the Constitution, rebellion is defined as an act aimed at removing state authority from part or all of the country or organizing a riot for the purpose of subverting the Constitution.
The court is widely expected to issue a heavy sentence to Yoon, as it had previously described the martial law attempt as an act of rebellion in the trial of former Prime Minister Han Dak-soo and former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, who are accused of playing key roles in the event.
The death penalty has not been carried out in Korea since 1997.
Seven other defendants will receive their first sentences in addition to Yoon on Thursday, including former Defense Minister and former National Police Agency chief Cho Ji-ho and former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency chief Kim Bong-sik.
All have been charged in connection with the martial law incident.
Yoon has already been sentenced to five years in prison in a separate trial on charges including his alleged obstruction of investigators’ attempt to arrest him last year.
The courtroom where Thursday’s hearings will be held is the same place where former President Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death in 1996 for his role in the 1979 coup that brought him to power and the military’s violent suppression of the democratization movement in Gwangju in 1980.
