On Friday, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced former South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to 30 years in prison on charges related to issuing operational orders to send drones to North Korean territory.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a court spokesman as confirming that the charges against Yoon in the case file had been proven, as he was convicted of abuse of power and high treason.
The former president was sentenced to 30 years and 15 years in prison, respectively, and Yoon Un-hyung, the former head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, while former head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, Kim Yong-dae, received a three-year suspended prison sentence of five years.
A systematic plan to fabricate the conditions of war
According to South Korean media, the indictments and judicial deliberations that began in April showed that the drone infiltration into the territory of the DPRK in October 2024 was not isolated, but was carried out with the intention of provoking Pyongyang militarily.
South Korea's prosecutors said Yoon's actions posed a direct threat to national security, as the systematic plan was aimed at "fabricating conditions of war" and creating a dangerous security pretext that would allow the former president to justify his sudden declaration of martial law.
According to investigations, drones were used to drop propaganda leaflets, which resulted in the leak of classified military information after some of them crashed and exacerbated tensions between the two countries.
Denial of defense and adherence to the hypothesis of self-defense
Former President Yoon Suk-yeol resumed the new rule, reiterating that his political decisions, including the declaration of martial law, were "in the interest of the nation only."
His legal defense team denied in statements carried by news agencies that their client had any direct role in issuing operational orders for the drones.
The defense lawyers explained that the operation came as a field and legitimate response to North Korea's sending balloons loaded with waste toward the South during the same period, describing the prosecution's narrative as merely "hypotheses that are not based on sufficient evidence" to separate the overlap between defense practices and political plans.
The 30-year sentence was added to a series of historically heavy sanctions facing Yoon Suk-yeol, who began his career as the country's attorney general before assuming the presidency in 2022.
The judiciary sentenced him to life in prison last February for leading an insurgency aimed at "paralyzing parliament".
Yoon's tenure was not complete as he was formally removed from power in 2025 following the political chaos he caused.
The night of the retreat and storming of the parliament
The Korean political scene brought back memories of the difficult periods of military rule the country experienced between 1960 and 1980, when Yoon abruptly announced martial law on the evening of December 3, 2024, and ordered the military forces to storm the National Assembly headquarters.
But the insistence of lawmakers to enter and vote unanimously against the resolution forced the president to back down after just six hours, and South Korea has once again become a model for stable democracies in Asia.
The recent military and intelligence frictions have been of a very dangerous nature given that the two Koreas have been in a state of war since 1953 in the absence of a formal peace treaty.
Although South Korea's current president, Lee Myung, expressed regret for Pyongyang following an official investigation that revealed the involvement of former officials in sending the drones — an initial welcome admission — North Korea later reversed and labeled its southern neighbor the "most hostile enemy state," underscoring the diplomatic embarrassment left by the Yoon administration's previous policies.
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