Ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol Sentenced to 30 Years for Drone Operation and Abuse of Power

Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been handed a 30-year prison sentence for aiding the enemy and abuse of power. The Seoul Central District Court found him guilty of orchestrating a military drone operation over Pyongyang in October 2024.

Prosecutors argued this drone incursion was a deliberate attempt to create a pretext for Yoon's aborted martial law declaration on December 3, 2024. The martial law attempt was quickly quashed by Parliament and public outcry.

This new conviction compounds Yoon's legal troubles. He is already serving a life sentence, imposed in February, for insurrection during the same failed martial law bid. That sentence was a historic first for modern South Korean politics.

The defense maintained Yoon did not order or approve the drone operation, presenting it as a response to North Korea's repeated provocations, including sending trash-filled balloons across the border. They denied any link between the drone mission and the martial law attempt.

Yoon's political downfall is one of the most dramatic in recent Asian history. A former chief prosecutor, he became president in 2022, representing the conservative wing of a politically divided nation. His martial law declaration, the first since 1980, plunged South Korea into its deepest political crisis in decades. He was impeached by Parliament and later removed from office by the Constitutional Court, leading to an early election won by current President Lee Jae Myung.