Former President Yoon Suk Yeol expects his verdict in a few hours in South Korea’s most important criminal trial in recent years.
02/19/2026, 04:2902/19/2026, 04:29
After the 65-year-old unexpectedly declared martial law in December 2024, he now has to answer for insurrection in the Seoul Central District Court. Judges have only three options available to them if they are found guilty: life imprisonment, life imprisonment with hard labor or the death penalty. The public prosecutor’s office demanded the latter in mid-January.
Yoon Suk Yeol faces a harsh punishmentImage: keystone
When Yoon declared martial law in the evening hours of December 3, 2024, he plunged South Korea into a state crisis that lasted for months. The conservative politician and former prosecutor spoke in a televised speech about wanting to protect the country’s liberal order from an opposition infiltrated by communists and North Korea sympathizers. However, he provided no evidence to support his claim.
In the evening hours, Yoon ordered special military units to cordon off the National Assembly in Seoul. However, his plan did not work: after a few hours, the MPs were able to revoke the martial law decree in a hastily called vote. The president was removed from office and impeached.
The special prosecutor’s team led by Cho Eun Seok called for the death penalty for Yoon in their closing argument in mid-January. The reasoning stated that the defendant had planned the imposition of martial law for a long time in order to destroy the country’s constitutional order. His actions caused “enormous damage and great suffering for the state and society”. The special prosecutor also accused Yoon of “not once sincerely apologizing to the public” and showing no remorse.
The ex-president is also accused of having accepted a conflict with North Korea. He is said to have ordered a secret drone operation on North Korean territory in the fall of 2024 in order to provoke a military response from Pyongyang – and in this way create a pretext to legitimize his martial law plans. North Korea did not respond to the provocation with military countermeasures.
Yoon’s lawyers, however, have always rejected the allegations. According to them, the martial law decree was a symbolic wake-up call to warn of a political crisis triggered by the opposition. In the months before martial law was declared, the dispute between the government and opposition over a budget law had escalated – there was a political stalemate.
Yoon had repeatedly described the criminal case against him as illegitimate. According to media reports, he did not appear in person at 16 court hearings.
According to observers, a guilty verdict is considered likely. In recent weeks, a number of high-ranking politicians from Yoon’s former cabinet have been convicted in connection with the state crisis at the time – for example, former Prime Minister Han Duck Soo received a 23-year prison sentence for his complicity in connection with the martial law decree.
South Korea’s conservative camp has lost a lot of popularity
But even if Yoon Suk Yeol were actually sentenced to death, it would probably not be carried out. There is de facto an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in South Korea. It was therefore temporarily suspended and has not been implemented since the late 1990s. Yoon Suk Yeol can also appeal the verdict.
In a separate trial, Yoon was previously sentenced to five years in prison for obstruction of justice. The court found it proven, among other things, that he destroyed evidence against him and abused the presidential security service to resist his arrest.
Since last summer, South Korea has been ruled by the left-centrist Lee Jae Myung, then the opposition leader. Its Democratic Party is comparatively popular among the population. According to a current poll by the Gallup polling institute, the ruling Democratic Party currently has an approval rating of 44 percent.
The conservative camp, on the other hand, has lost significant support since the state crisis triggered by Yoon Suk Yeol. Approval for the People Power Party, of which Yoon was a member until he left in May, is now only 22 percent. (sda/dpa)