Yoon Verdict 30 Years in Prison: Drone Flights Over North Korea

The current case centers on drone flights over Pyongyang in October 2024. According to the court's findings reported by Yonhap, Yoon „had been involved in the drone flights over Pyongyang in October 2024 from the very beginning, in order to create a pretext for the failed imposition of martial law in December 2024“.

Allegation: Drones as a Pretext for Martial Law

Prosecutors had accused Yoon of using the drone flights to heighten tensions with North Korea and thereby stage a national emergency. A motion filed in April by investigators working under Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-suk had also requested a 30-year prison sentence for Yoon.

Prosecutors had accused Yoon of using the drone flights to manufacture a pretext for the imposition of martial law he carried out at the end of 2024. Special prosecutors said in April that Yoon's effort to „fabricate wartime conditions“ with the drones had undermined state security.

In addition to Yoon, his former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, a close confidant of Yoon who had planned and mobilized the forces for the martial law declaration, was also convicted in the case. Prosecutors had demanded 25 years in prison for Kim.

Co-Defendant: Former Defense Minister

The court found that Yoon and Kim had sought to use the drone flights to provoke North Korea into launching armed attacks or other serious provocations against South Korea, in order to generate a national emergency. According to Yonhap, the court said the actions had harmed South Korea's military interests by exposing capabilities and undermining the execution of future operations.

The former president rejected the allegations. His lawyers said he had neither ordered nor approved the operation. They also argued that the flights had nothing to do with martial law, but were a response to North Korean balloons filled with trash that had been sent across the border for months.

Defense Rejects the Allegations

His lawyers criticized the verdict, arguing that a guilty verdict would undermine South Korea's security interests. They did not initially say whether they would appeal. Yoon may appeal Friday's verdict.

Yoon's lawyers also said the drone flights were a response to North Korean balloons that had previously sent thousands of trash-carrying balloons southward during 2024. North Korea had accused Seoul three times in October 2024 of flying drones over Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets.

Background: Impeachment and Political Crisis

Yoon was removed from office last year after the Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment. The resulting snap election was won by the liberal politician Lee Jae Myung.

His actions had plunged Asia's fourth-largest economy into a severe political crisis. The martial law imposed in December 2024 lasted about six hours, until lawmakers broke through a blockade of soldiers and police officers at the parliament and voted to lift martial law, after which Yoon's cabinet had to withdraw the measure.

In his televised address on December 3, 2024, Yoon had accused liberal lawmakers of being North Korea-sympathizing „anti-state“ forces and cited a series of grievances, notably the opposition's impeachments of senior officials and cuts to his government's budget. Yoon has appealed his conviction, insisting that he imposed martial law „solely for the benefit of the nation“.

Outlook: Further Proceedings and Appeal

Prosecutors had requested a 30-year prison sentence for Yoon in April. Yoon was arrested in July 2025; he faces multiple criminal cases. In addition to the life sentence and the current verdict, further proceedings are pending, including charges of corruption and allegations related to the martial law declaration itself.

Yoon is currently in custody. His lawyers announced no concrete steps immediately after the verdict. Observers noted that the additional sentence is largely symbolic in significance, as Yoon is already set to remain in prison for life due to his previous conviction.