A South Korean court on Friday sentenced ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol and his former defense minister to 30 years in prison for ordering military drone flights over Pyongyang in 2024, ruling that the operation was designed to provoke North Korea and manufacture a pretext for the martial law declaration that ended Yoon's presidency.
The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon and Kim Yong Hyun guilty of aiding an adversary and abusing their power, concluding they sought to goad Pyongyang into armed retaliation that would let Yoon declare a national emergency. The court said the scheme damaged South Korea's own military interests — exposing its capabilities, undermining future operations and prompting the North to harden its defenses.
North Korea accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets three times in October 2024, claims the Yoon government at the time neither confirmed nor denied. Tensions spiked sharply but stopped short of military clashes.
The verdict adds to a life sentence the same court handed Yoon earlier this year for rebellion over the martial law decree itself. Yoon declared martial law late on December 3, 2024, branding opposition lawmakers 'anti-state' forces; the measure collapsed within about six hours when lawmakers forced their way past soldiers into the National Assembly and voted it down. He was impeached, removed by the Constitutional Court and arrested in July 2025.
Special prosecutor Cho Eun-suk's team had sought exactly the sentence imposed on Yoon, accusing him of trying to create a warlike situation between the Koreas while plotting to 'monopolize' power. Prosecutors had asked for 25 years for Kim, a close confidant who helped plan and mobilize forces for the martial law operation.
Yoon's lawyers argued he neither ordered nor approved the drone flights, describing them as a response to the thousands of trash-carrying balloons North Korea floated south earlier in 2024, and warned the verdict would harm South Korea's security interests. They did not immediately say whether they would appeal; the separate rebellion conviction is already under appeal by both sides, with prosecutors having sought the death penalty.
The drone case verdict closes one of the last major chapters in the legal reckoning over the martial law crisis — and entrenches the extraordinary fall of a president who, less than two years ago, commanded South Korea's military and its alliance diplomacy.