Former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yul was found guilty of leading a rebellion and sentenced to life in prison for declaring martial law in 2024 that shocked the nation and sparked the country’s most serious political crisis in decades.
This ruling represents the conclusion of one of the most important judicial proceedings involving a former president of South Korea, as the martial law issue attracted attention as a test of the country’s democratic health. The incident brought back memories of former leader Chun Doo-hwan, who was sentenced to death for an attempted coup in the late 1970s. Chun was eventually pardoned.
The Seoul Central District Court issued the guilty verdict on Thursday after prosecutors sought the death penalty on the grounds that Yoon poses a serious threat to the country’s constitutional order.
“Yon’s imposition of emergency martial law damaged the constitutional order by mobilizing military forces in an attempt to besiege the National Assembly,” the court said while convicting Yoon of leading a rebellion.
Yoon arrived at the nearly crowded courtroom wearing a dark blue jacket and shirt and sat motionless, and the verdict was pronounced about an hour later.
Yoon, 65, was indicted last year on charges of rebellion after civil rule was suspended in early December. The short-lived decree led to his impeachment and the first arrest and indictment of a sitting South Korean president.
The former leader can appeal the ruling. Any appeal would be referred to a higher court and could take months to resolve.
Yoon denied any wrongdoing, saying his announcement was a desperate attempt to confront what he claimed were North Korean sympathizers trying to paralyze his administration. At the last hearing in January, he said public opposition to his impeachment made him feel his “emergency alert” had been effective.
Yoon, a former prosecutor general, ascended to the presidency promising to revive the coronavirus-hit economy and take a tougher stance on North Korea and China. But his political gamble upended his administration, ending his term and paving the way for elections. The more progressive President Lee Jae-myung came to power in June.
“I would say 70 percent or more of the public agree that declaring martial law was wrong,” Park Won-ho, a professor of political science at Seoul National University, said by phone before the ruling was issued.
“So holding him accountable in some way is an important step, and that may be what we are seeing today,” Park added. “My sense is that once the ruling is issued, there may be a degree of closure, and the situation can begin to stabilize.”
The ruling may give Lee more space to focus on his political agenda while the main opposition People Power Party faces the latest fallout from the failure of martial law. Lee still needs bipartisan support as he tries to heal a divided nation and protect the export-reliant economy from President Donald Trump’s tariff pressures.
“In a way, this feels like the closing of a chapter – a chapter that began on December 3, 2024, when martial law was declared. Since then, we have gone through a very complex process with many twists and turns, but now the Korean judicial system is in a position to provide an answer,” Park added.
