S. Korea's Yoon Suk Yeol Sentenced for Attempted 2024 Coup
Yonhap News agency is reporting that ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for treason. The sentence comes on top of an earlier life sentence for insurrection. A Seoul court found that Yoon ordered the military to deploy drones over North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, in October 2024 and that the move was intended to create a national security crisis and justify his failed attempt to declare martial law later that year. Yoon’s actions were widely condemned as an attempted coup and led to his removal from power and arrest.
New Sentence for Yoon Suk Yeol
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REPORTER:
Ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has reportedly been handed a 30-year sentence, on top of an earlier life sentence. South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency is reporting that a Seoul Court arrived at the verdict on Friday. It found that Yoon ordered the military to deploy drones over North Korea’s capital Pyongyang in October 2024. And that this created a pretext for his failed attempt to declare martial law later that year. The declaration is widely viewed as an attempted coup and resulted in his removal from power and later arrest. Yoon is already serving life in prison for insurrection on separate but related charges.
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REPORTER:
Seoul court on Friday sentenced former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to a 30-year jail term in a case alleging he ordered military drones sent over Pyongyang to help create a pretext for his failed 2024 martial law declaration, Yonhap news agency reported.
The timeline of his sentencing looks like this:
- Verdict 1: Obstruction of Justice (January 2026)
He was initially sentenced to 5 years in prison for abusing his authority and using the presidential security service to shield himself from law enforcement investigators attempting to execute an arrest warrant. Note: On appeal in April 2026, this sentence was increased to 7 years.
- Verdict 2: Insurrection (February 2026)
In the main case regarding the actual execution of the self-coup, a district court sentenced him to life imprisonment for masterminding an insurrection and illegally mobilizing troops to lock down the National Assembly.
- Verdict 3: General Treason / The Drone Plot (June 2026)
Most recently, the court handed down a 30-year sentence for general treason, finding him guilty of deliberately ordering military drones into Pyongyang to create the security crisis he needed to justify his martial law declaration.
In total, he is facing Life + 37 years across these three major rulings. Because he has pleaded not guilty throughout, these lower-court and appellate decisions are heavily expected to face final appeals at South Korea’s Supreme Court.
