On June 12, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced former South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol in the case of launching drones into the territory of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). This was reported by the South Korean agency Yonhap.
The court found Yoon guilty of “assisting the enemy” and abuse of power. According to investigators, in October 2024, he ordered a special operation to launch drones into the territory of the DPRK in order to provoke its leader Kim Jong-un and use the growing tension between the countries as a reason for martial law, which was declared in South Korea on December 3 of the same year.
The ex-president's lawyers argued that this was a legitimate military operation in response to North Korea launching garbage balloons towards the country. However, the court ruled that this only undermined the state's security interests, exposed its military capabilities to North Korea and, as a result, increased the latter's combat readiness.
Yoon was sentenced to 30 years in prison. His defense plans to appeal the verdict, the newspaper writes.
In addition to him, other officials were also sentenced: the ex-Minister of Defense received the same sentence, the ex-head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command – 15 years, and the ex-chief of the Drone Operations Command – three years with a suspended sentence of five years.
