Seoul court sentences ex-President Yoon to 30 years for drone operation

A Seoul court on Friday sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison after finding him guilty of ordering drone infiltrations into North Korea in an attempt to heighten cross-border tensions and create a basis for his martial law declaration in December 2024.

The Seoul Central District Court convicted the jailed former president on charges of benefiting the enemy and abuse of power in its ruling that matched special counsel Cho Eun-suk's sentencing recommendation.

The court recognized that Yoon had ordered the operation in October 2024 to provoke Pyongyang and use the anticipated increase in cross-border tensions as a pretext for his Dec. 3 declaration of martial law.

Yoon's legal team appealed the ruling hours later.

In a press conference, his legal team criticized the ruling, saying the judiciary will eventually pay the price for making a faulty argument and that the ruling appears to align with the position of North Korea.

The court also sentenced former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun to 30 years in prison for his role in such operations, higher than the 25 years sought by the special counsel.

It sentenced Yeo In-hyung, former head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, to 15 years in prison for his involvement in the operation, while Kim Yong-dae, former chief of the Drone Operations Command, received a three-year sentence suspended for five years.

"In order to create conditions for martial law, the defendants decided to use the military tactic of psychological warfare to incite North Korea and induce a provocation, and use that to prompt an armed provocation, such as a local conflict, or create a national security crisis situation resulting from heightened military tension," the court said.

It said the actions amounted to "betraying" the people's expectation that the president and the defense minister would use military force only for legitimate purposes, adding that there was a personal motivation behind the operation.

Yoon's legal team has argued that the drone deployment was a legitimate military operation in response to North Korea's launches of trash-carrying balloons into South Korea in 2024.

The court ruled that the operation undermined South Korea's security interests by exposing its military assets to North Korea and, as a result, strengthening North Korea's military readiness.

In October 2024, Pyongyang accused Seoul of drone infiltrations and dropping propaganda leaflets over the North's capital. Then Defense Minister Kim had initially denied the North Korean accusation. The defense ministry later said it could neither confirm nor deny the accusation.

Friday's ruling marked the latest conviction for Yoon, who is currently in custody and faces multiple trials linked to his botched martial law bid.

In February, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection through his martial law declaration. He has appealed that ruling.

The special counsel team welcomed Friday's ruling, saying the court made a judgment on the duplicity of those in charge of national security who neglected security in pursuit of political interest.