South Korea has convicted a former head of state of insurrection for the first time in almost three decades. by declaring martial law live on television, and sentenced to life imprisonment this Thursday by the Seoul Central District Court. The ruling places his name alongside that of dictator Chun Doo-hwan and marks one of the most momentous judicial moments since the democratic transition of the country, a key ally of the United States in the region.
The crime of insurrection, as defined by the South Korean Penal Code, punishes anyone who rises up to overthrow the organs of the State established by the Constitution or to forcibly prevent the exercise of their functions. It is one of the few exceptions to the immunity enjoyed by sitting presidents (along with the crime of treason) and constitutes one of the most severe types of criminal offenses in the country’s legal system, which can even carry the death penalty. However, there is a moratorium in fact on executions since 1997.
The president of the court, Ji Gwi-yeon, specified during the reading of the ruling that improperly declaring martial law does not automatically constitute a crime of insurrection. However, if this declaration results in preventing the National Assembly (Parliament) from exercising its functions (that is, if its rights are violated and its ability to act is blocked), then it can be considered an act aimed at disturbing the constitutional order. Furthermore, Judge Ji explained that all actions following the declaration of martial law (including the deployment of troops and the attempt to control Parliament) constituted acts of violent disruption.
The court concluded that Yoon and then-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun acted with the purpose of paralyzing the operation of the National Assembly and disturbing the constitutional order. To substantiate this, he expressly alluded to the images of that night, including the forcible entry of soldiers into Parliament.
The crime of insurrection had previously been applied against a head of state in 1996, when dictator Chun Doo-hwan was convicted of leading the military coup of 1979 and the Gwangju repression of 1980. Since then, the charge has been associated with the most traumatic episodes of South Korea’s democratic transition. In the case of Chun, who was initially sentenced to death, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was eventually pardoned in 1997.
Outside the court, the verdict has been followed in a climate of strong polarization, with supporters and detractors of Yoon concentrated in the vicinity of the building. Nearly a thousand agents have been deployed to avoid confrontations.
The Prosecutor’s Office maintained that Yoon crossed a red line on the night of December 3, 2024, by declaring martial law without there being a war or national emergency to justify it, and by mobilizing military and police forces to physically block parliamentary activity. The prosecution argued that its decision not only paralyzed the functioning of the National Assembly, but also “destroyed the liberal democratic constitutional order” and called for Yoon to be sentenced to capital punishment.
In a televised speech, the then South Korean president argued that the reason for decreeing the extreme measure was that the opposition, which held the parliamentary majority, was paralyzing the Government and acting as an “anti-state” force with sympathies towards North Korea.
Judge Ji maintained during the reading of the sentence that the accusation made by the Prosecutor’s Office was “justified based on the preponderance of evidence” and rejected the arguments of Yoon’s defense, which had alleged that part of the evidence was obtained illegally. The former president had tried to invalidate the process from its base, questioning the legality of the investigation, but the court has confirmed that both the Prosecutor’s Office and the Corruption Investigation Office for Senior Officials (CIO) acted within their powers.
The court was also due to rule on the accusation that he ordered troops to storm the National Assembly to forcibly expel opposition deputies and arrest him, as well as deploy soldiers and police to block and control access to strategic buildings, including the headquarters of the main opposition party.
The extreme measure was only in force for six hours. At dawn, a sufficient number of deputies managed to meet and revoke it in an extraordinary vote held while agents mobilized by Yoon tried to access the chamber to prevent it, and thousands of citizens took to the streets to demonstrate against the presidential decision. Faced with growing political and social pressure, Yoon announced his retirement.
That was the first time since 1980 that martial law was imposed in South Korea, a country whose collective memory remains marked by its authoritarian past. The images of deputies struggling with soldiers and of protesters concentrated in the streets of Seoul went around the world and opened an institutional crisis unprecedented in decades.
Yoon, the country’s former attorney general, was , which opened the door for justice to move forward investigating other criminal charges related to . Last month, he was sentenced to five years in prison after it was proven that he used his presidential security team to hinder his own arrest and that he falsified a document in which he attributed non-existent support to other authorities. , marked a turning point in the institutional crisis, which has been being resolved in the courts ever since.
The former president, who has been in preventive detention for a year, still has seven other pending trials, five of them related to the imposition of martial law. He is also accused of abuse of power, false testimony and, following the alleged sending of drones to North Korea with the aim of fueling tension between the two neighbors in 2024.
