South Korea court sentences ex-President Yoon to 30-year jail term over drone incursion

Seoul Court Sentences Yoon for Drone Incursion Over North Korea in Latest Conviction for Ex-President

A Seoul court has sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison after finding him guilty of ordering the flying of drones over North Korea in October 2024 to provoke the regime and manufacture a security crisis to use as a pretext for his Dec. 3, 2024, declaration of martial law. Seoul Central District Court on June 12 convicted Yoon on charges of benefiting the enemy and abuse of power, according to the Yonhap News Agency. Form…

And You Thought Politicians In The United States Were Power Hungry

A former president of South Korea has been sentenced in his country to 30 years in prison for illegally declaring martial law while he was in office. Yoon Suk Yeol was so obsessed with maintaining his grip on power he ordered drone flights over North Korea two years ago to trigger a response as an [...] The post And You Thought Politicians In The United States Were Power Hungry appeared first on The Maine Wire.

South Korea's Yoon, Kim sentenced for sending drones into North Korea as a martial law pretext

South Korea's ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol and his former defence minister were sentenced to 30 years in prison Friday in a case alleging Yoon ordered drone flights over Pyongyang in 2024 to heighten tensions with North Korea and justify declaring martial law at home.

Former South Korean President sentenced to 30 years in prison in drone infiltration case

A Seoul court on Friday sentenced former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison after finding him guilty of ordering drone infiltrations into North Korea in an alleged attempt to escalate inter-Korean tensions and justify the declaration of martial law in December 2024, Yonhap News Agency reported. According to the Yonhap News Agency, in the ruling delivered by the Seoul Central District Court, Yoon was convicted on charges of benefiting the enemy and abuse of power. The sentence was in line with the punishment sought by special counsel Cho Eun-suk. The court held that Yoon had directed the drone operation in October 2024 with the intention of provoking North Korea and using the resulting tensions as a basis for imposing martial law on December 3, 2024. Yoon's legal team filed an appeal against the verdict within hours of the ruling. The court also handed former South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun a 30-year prison sentence for his involvement in the operation, exceeding the 25-year sentence requested by the special counsel, Yonhap News Agency reported. Former South Korean Defence Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while Kim Yong-dae, the former head of the Drone Operations Command, received a three-year prison term suspended for five years. Explaining its decision, the court said, "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," as quoted by Yonhap News Agency. The court further observed that the actions amounted to "betraying" the public's trust that the president and defence minister would employ military force only for lawful purposes, adding that the operation appeared to have been driven by personal motivations. Yoon's defence team had argued that the drone deployment constituted a legitimate military response to North Korea's launch of trash-carrying balloons into South Korea in 2024. However, the court ruled that the operation had compromised South Korea's national security interests by exposing its military capabilities to Pyongyang and inadvertently enhancing North Korea's military preparedness, Yonhap News Agency reported. In October 2024, North Korea accused Seoul of conducting drone incursions and dropping propaganda leaflets over Pyongyang. Then-Defence Minister Kim initially denied the allegations, while South Korea's Defence Ministry later stated that it could neither confirm nor deny the accusations. Friday's ruling marks the latest conviction against Yoon, who remains in custody and is facing multiple legal proceedings linked to his failed martial law attempt. Earlier this year, in February, Yoon was sentenced to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection through his declaration of martial law. He has appealed that conviction as well. (ANI)

Ex-South Korea Leader Yoon Suk Gets 30 Years Over Drone Incursion Into Pyongyang

Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to 30 years in prison by the Seoul Central District Court for sending drones into North Korea in October 2024. The court found Yoon guilty of abuse of power and aiding the enemy, determining that he conspired in the drone operation, which prosecutors argued was intended to create a pretext for his failed martial law declaration later that year. Yoon, already serving a life sentence f…