South Korea sentences ex-President to 30 years in prison

• Court finds him guilty over North Korea drone incursion scheme
• Judges say operation was used to justify failed martial law bid
• Yoon denies wrongdoing and plans to appeal

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison on Friday for ordering a covert military drone incursion over North Korea.

Judges ruled that the ousted conservative leader deliberately authorized the high-stakes cross-border operation to fabricate a national security crisis.

The court statement noted that Yoon used the resulting friction to create a political pretext for his failed December 2024 martial law declaration, an action that briefly plunged Asia's fourth-largest economy into its worst political chaos in decades.

Abuse of power

The panel of judges found Yoon guilty of both aiding the enemy and severe abuse of power.

The landmark ruling concluded that the former top prosecutor had actively conspired in the October 2024 drone flights over the North Korean capital of Pyongyang from the very beginning of the operation's planning phases.

The decision marks a total victory for state prosecutors, who had demanded the maximum 30-year term during sentencing hearings in April.

Yoon vehemently denied the latest criminal charges throughout the trial.

His defense team maintained that the former president neither ordered nor later approved the flight paths.

Furthermore, his lawyers argued that the drone deployment was entirely unrelated to the subsequent martial law decree, framing it instead as a standard defense response to combat months of North Korean psychological warfare involving border-crossing balloons packed with domestic waste.

Mounting legal woe 

Friday's lower court verdict adds to a mountain of legal defeats for the embattled former leader, who remains held in a secure detention facility.

In February, a separate court handed Yoon a life sentence after convicting him of leading an armed insurrection during the botched martial law attempt.

Yoon was officially stripped of his executive powers last year after the Constitutional Court voted unanimously to uphold his parliamentary impeachment.

His removal from office triggered a snap presidential election, which was won by liberal candidate Lee Jae Myung.

Yoon can legally appeal Friday's lower court ruling to a higher appellate bench. He has already filed formal appeals against his previous treason and insurrection convictions.