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South Korea’s ex-president jailed for life
Former President Yoon Suk-yeol has been sentenced to life in prison by a Seoul court after being convicted of insurrection for his attempt to impose martial law late in 2024, a landmark verdict that caps the country’s most serious political crisis in decades.
The Seoul Central District Court found that Yoon’s order on Dec. 3, 2024 to declare martial law and deploy military and police forces to surround the National Assembly amounted to an unconstitutional effort to disrupt parliamentary functions and seize power actions classified under South Korean law as insurrection.
Although prosecutors had sought a death sentence, judges opted for life imprisonment, noting the absence of casualties and other legal factors. Yoon, who was later impeached and removed from office in 2025, has denied the charges and plans to appeal the conviction, his legal team said.
The ruling also saw prison terms handed down to several former officials linked to the martial law decree, including a long sentence for the former defense minister.
The crisis underscored deep political divisions in South Korea and raised concerns about democratic safeguards, but many analysts say the verdict reaffirms the principle that no leader is above the law.
Yoon’s short-lived martial law lasted only hours before lawmakers lifted it, and he was removed from office by the Constitutional Court months later. His life sentence is one of the harshest ever imposed on a former South Korean leader in its modern democratic era.
