SEOUL — A court in South Korea sentenced former president Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison on Thursday, after convicting him of leading an insurrection when he declared martial law in late 2024. The judges could have sentenced him to death, by law the only alternative punishment.
Yoon was found guilty of acting as the ringleader of an insurrection when he orchestrated a disastrous attempt to install a military-led government late on a December night. As the military descended on the National Assembly, lawmakers overturned Yoon’s decree. Martial law was lifted within six hours, but Yoon was impeached, ousted from office and criminally charged along with co-defendants who were also convicted in the insurrection case.
The Seoul Central District Court found that Yoon and his aides ordered the military to the National Assembly for the express purpose of obstructing the legislative process, and that Yoon used his presidential authority to declare martial law to subvert the constitution.
“The fact that so many public officials … are suffering immensely due to the defendants’ momentary lapse in judgment is a great pain to our society,” Presiding Judge Ji Gwi-yeon said.
Ji added, however, that there was no evidence that Yoon meticulously planned in advance to decree martial law, and that there appeared to have been an effort to minimize the use of lethal force that night. The court said it also considered Yoon’s lifelong career in public service as a prosecutor, and that he is 65 years old.
Experts said the court’s decision to spare Yoon the death penalty reflected judicial restraint, and it would help avoid fracturing an already polarized nation still reeling from the fallout of the martial law decree. On Thursday, the political divisions were on stark display at rallies near the court complex; Yoon’s supporters staged an overnight protest demanding his acquittal, while his critics demanded accountability.
Inside, Yoon and his co-defendants stood in silence as Ji read the verdict. Outside, the dueling rallies erupted in screams as Ji imposed Yoon’s fate. The ex-president’s critics shook their fists triumphantly at the large screen live-streaming the court proceedings, while supporters — holding “Not Guilty” signs — looked stunned, some with their hands over their mouths and others cursing.
The verdict marked a pivotal moment in South Korea’s young democratic history, which dates to 1987 after an uprising toppled a brutal military-led government under Chun Doo-hwan. Chun was sentenced to death in 1996 after being convicted on similar insurrection charges for seizing power during a coup in 1979. On appeal, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was later pardoned.
Yoon’s conviction upheld the rule of law and reaffirmed the nation’s democratic system and principles, democracy advocates and experts said.
“The conviction of an ex-president demonstrates that no one is above the law,” said Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies in Washington, adding: “The conviction of Yoon through the judicial process reflects South Korea’s democratic resilience.”
While the court denied prosecutors’ request for the death penalty, the life sentence signaled an effort by the judges to balance democratic moderation against the severity of Yoon’s constitutional violations, said Hannah Kim, a political scientist at Sogang University in Seoul.
“South Korea’s democracy is capable not only of punishing constitutional violations, but of doing so in a way that reinforces institutional stability rather than escalating political rupture,” Kim said.
A death sentence, in any case, probably would have been more symbolic than practical, as South Korea has not carried out an execution since 1997 and is widely regarded as a country where capital punishment is effectively banned.
Two top aides to Yoon have been convicted on charges related to the martial law decree. Former prime minister Han Duck-soo was sentenced last month to 23 years in prison for his role. Han is appealing the ruling. And former interior minister Lee Sang-min was sentenced last week to seven years in prison. He is also appealing, according to national media reports.
Yoon is facing eight separate trials stemming from his decree, but the insurrection case was the most consequential. Last month, a Seoul court sentenced him to five years in prison for abuse of power, obstruction of justice and falsifying documents.
For many South Koreans, Yoon’s insurrection trial may have felt familiar.
Yoon was sentenced in Courtroom 417 of the Seoul Central District Court — the same room where Chun, wearing a light blue prison jumpsuit, was sentenced to death nearly 30 years ago.
During their sentencing request last month, prosecutors argued Yoon deserved the harshest possible penalty, citing the need to prevent “history from repeating itself.” They referred to Chun’s case and South Korea’s authoritarian past.
Yoon has denied all charges and contends that imposing martial law was a legitimate exercise of the president’s emergency powers. Yoon has said that he declared martial law to confront the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which he said was paralyzing his administration through repeated efforts to impeach top officials. He has denied that the brief deployment of troops to the National Assembly was an act of insurrection.
Ji pointedly disagreed, saying that Yoon had deployed troops with the intent to obstruct or paralyze lawmakers’ activities for a significant amount of time, and that invoking a national emergency was merely a means to that end.
“You cannot steal a candle to read the Bible,” Ji said.
Yoon’s late-night decree on Dec. 3, 2024, made in a televised address, prompted thousands of protesters to mass outside the National Assembly and demand a return to democratic governance.
As soldiers and police surrounded the National Assembly complex, lawmakers scaled the walls to bypass them. In defiance of the decree’s ban on political activity, they voted to reverse Yoon’s decision. And despite a gag order on the press, reporters from traditional and independent media alike flooded the scene and delivered live reports.
Yoon lifted his order six hours later, but the incident shocked and outraged the nation — now a thriving democracy where political protests and marches of all stripes are a weekly occurrence — and it spurred South Korea’s most harrowing political crisis in decades.
Yoon was impeached with his presidential powers suspended less than two weeks later and ultimately removed from office.
Yoon, formerly the nation’s top prosecutor, was a divisive president during his more than 2½ years in power. Rather than seeking to unify the deeply divided nation, Yoon appealed to his conservative base, exacerbating polarization and often deadlocking with opposition lawmakers.
South Korean presidents are often disgraced. Nearly every president since the country’s democratization has become embroiled in scandals involving corruption, bribery, embezzlement or abuse of power.
Yoon’s downfall, however, stands apart even by South Korean standards, as the first democratically elected president to impose martial law and the first sitting president to face a criminal investigation.
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