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Agence France-Presse

A South Korean court sentenced ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol to 30 years in prison on Friday for sending military drones into North Korea, saying he planned the action as pretext for his disastrous martial law declaration in 2024.
The drone flights two months before Yoon suspended civilian rule had sparked anger in North Korea, which accused the South of dropping propaganda leaflets as well.
Judges said Yoon intended to provoke Pyongyang “into carrying out armed or equivalent acts against South Korea’s military of people”, according to a summary of their ruling.
Yoon planned to “heighten inter-Korean military tensions and manufacture a national crisis” so his martial law could have been justified, they added.
The former president was given 30 years in jail over the drone incursion, the Seoul Central District Court said on Friday.
Yoon is in detention while he appeals a life sentence for leading an insurrection with his martial law declaration. He insists that he declared martial law “solely for the sake of the nation”.

His defence has also denied the charge over the drones, arguing that operation was in response to North Korea sending balloons carrying trash across the border that year.
On Friday, the court’s judges said the 2024 drone operation “entailed the use of South Korea’s military capabilities for private purposes”.
The judges added that powers vested in the president, including supreme command of the armed forces and the authority to declare martial law, must be exercised to protect the nation’s survival and security.
But Yoon approved the military drone operation, “believing he could arbitrarily use such powers for his own political gain”, the judges said.
Yoon’s shock late-night national televised address in December 2024 that suspended civilian rule plunged South Korea into an unprecedented political crisis.
Martial law lasted only about six hours as lawmakers raced to the assembly building and voted it down in an emergency session.


However, it triggered protests, sent the stock market plunging and caught major allies like the United States off-guard.
Yoon is facing multiple legal cases, and Lee Jae Myung was elected president after months of political chaos in the country.
Drone flights remain a flashpoint in tensions between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war.
In an incident unrelated to Yoon’s drone case, South Korean investigators found that government officials had sent drones into the nuclear-armed North in January.
President Lee expressed regret earlier this year over the incident.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister called Lee’s statement “wise behaviour”, but hopes for a rapprochement faded after the diplomatically isolated nation returned to calling the South its “most hostile” enemy.


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South Korean court sentences ex-president Yoon to 30 years over Pyongyang drone plot

South Korea

Yoon Suk-yeol attends the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro as South Korean president on November 18, 2024. Photo: AFP

A justice ministry vehicle carrying jailed former president Yoon Suk-yeol enters the Seoul Central District Court on Friday. Photo: Yonhap/EPA

South Korea’s Yoon has jail term raised to 7 years in obstruction case

Supporters of South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk-yeol wave flags near the Seoul High Court in Seoul on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol (centre) attends a hearing on the verdict of his appeal at the High Court in Seoul on Wednesday. Photo: EPA/Yonhap/Handout

Supporters of former first lady Kim Keon-hee hold up her pictures as they rally outside Seoul High Court in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

Supporters of South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk-yeol stage a rally outside the Seoul High Court on Wednesday. Photo: AP

South Korea’s Kim Keon-hee ignores Yoon in frosty courtroom reunion

A combination photo shows South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk-yeol (left) exiting court in January and his wife, former first lady Kim Keon-hee, arriving at the special prosecutor’s office in Seoul in August last year. Photos: EPA/AFP

Kim Keon-hee, wearing a face mask, talks with her lawyer at the Seoul Central District Court in December. Photo: Yonhap/EPA

Happier times: Kim Keon-hee and Yoon Suk-yeol visit Lithuania in July 2023 to attend a Nato summit. Photo: Yonhap/dpa

South Korea’s former justice minister Park Sung-jae arrives at Seoul Central District Court on March 23 to attend a hearing in his trial on insurrection charges. Photo: Yonhap/EPA

What Yoon’s life sentence means for South Korean democracy

A supporter of former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol reacts following a guilty verdict during the sentencing trial in his insurrection case on February 19. Photo: Reuters

South Korea’s ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol, who has since been sentenced to life in prison for insurrection, waves outside a detention centre in Uiwang, South Korea, in March last year. Photo: Reuters

A Yoon supporter reacts following a guilty verdict during the sentencing trial in his insurrection case on February 19. Photo: Reuters

A protester holds a placard that reads “death sentence” alongside a photo of Yoon during a rally near the Seoul Central District Court on February 19. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Soldiers attempt to enter the National Assembly building in Seoul on December 4, 2024, after Yoon had declared martial law. Photo: AFP

South Korea’s ex-president Yoon sentenced to life in prison for insurrection

A woman walks past a television screen in Seoul broadcasting a news report on Yoon Suk-yeol’s sentencing on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Supporters of impeached former president Yoon shout slogans as they rally outside the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday. Photo: EPA

A protester holds a placard calling for Yoon to be put to death at a rally in Seoul on Thursday. Photo: AFP

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Yoon is already serving a life sentence for insurrection over his short-lived martial law decree in 2024


Yoon is already serving a life sentence for insurrection over his short-lived martial law decree in 2024.


South Korean court sentences ex-president Yoon to 30 years over Pyongyang drone plot

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Yoon is already serving a life sentence for insurrection over his short-lived martial law decree in 2024

Yoon is already serving a life sentence for insurrection over his short-lived martial law decree in 2024