Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Seoul court on Friday, 12 June, after being found guilty of ordering covert drone infiltrations into North Korea to manufacture cross-border tensions — tensions he allegedly intended to use as justification for his December 2024 martial law declaration. The verdict by the Seoul Central District Court matched the sentencing recommendation made by special counsel Cho Eun-suk.

What the Court Found

The court convicted Yoon on charges of benefiting the enemy and abuse of power, ruling that he had ordered the drone operation in October 2024 specifically to provoke Pyongyang and exploit the resulting security escalation as a pretext for his 3 December martial law declaration, according to reports citing Yonhap News Agency.

'In order to create conditions for martial law, the defendants decided to use the military tactic of psychological warfare to incite North Korea and induce a provocation, and use that to prompt an armed provocation, such as a local conflict, or create a national security crisis situation resulting from heightened military tension,' the court stated in its ruling.

The court further said the actions amounted to 'betraying' the people's expectation that the president and the defence minister would deploy military force only for legitimate purposes, and noted a personal motivation behind the operation.

Co-Accused Also Sentenced

Former South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun was also sentenced to 30 years — exceeding the 25-year term sought by the special counsel — for his role in the drone operations. Yeo In-hyung, former head of the Defence Counterintelligence Command, received a 15-year sentence for his involvement, while Kim Yong-dae, former chief of the Drone Operations Command, was handed a three-year sentence suspended for five years.

The Defence's Position

Yoon's legal team argued that the drone deployment was a legitimate military operation, undertaken in direct response to North Korea's launches of trash-carrying balloons into South Korea during 2024. The team filed an appeal against Friday's ruling within hours of the verdict being delivered.

The court rejected this line of defence, ruling that the operation had instead undermined South Korea's own security interests by exposing its military assets to North Korea and, as a result, strengthening the North's military readiness.

Background: A Pattern of Convictions

Friday's sentencing is the latest in a series of legal blows against Yoon, who remains in custody and faces multiple ongoing trials connected to his failed martial law bid. Notably, in February 2025, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection through his martial law declaration — a ruling he has also appealed.

The October 2024 drone episode had already strained inter-Korean relations: Pyongyang publicly accused Seoul of infiltrating drones and dropping propaganda leaflets over the North Korean capital. Then-Defence Minister Kim initially denied the accusation; the defence ministry subsequently said it could neither confirm nor deny it. The court's ruling on Friday effectively settled that ambiguity, at least in the judicial record.

With multiple appeals now in motion, Yoon's legal battles are far from over — and the verdicts continue to reshape South Korea's political and security landscape.