South Korea's former president Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sending drones into North Korea, a move prosecutors argued was aimed at creating a pretext for his failed martial law declaration in 2024.
The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty of abuse of power and aiding the enemy, saying he had conspired in the October 2024 drone incursion from the outset. Special prosecutors said in April that Yoon's effort to 'fabricate wartime conditions' with the drones had undermined state security.
Yoon denied wrongdoing. His lawyers said he neither ordered nor later approved the operation, which they said was unrelated to martial law and instead a response to months of North Korean launches of balloons stuffed with rubbish across the border.
North Korea accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang to drop propaganda leaflets three times in October 2024. South Korea's defence minister at the time, Kim Yong-hyun, issued a vague denial before the defence ministry said it could neither confirm nor deny the allegations.
Friday's ruling adds to a series of judgments against the ousted conservative leader, who was given life in jail in February for leading an insurrection with his 2024 martial law declaration. He has appealed against that conviction, insisting he declared martial law 'solely for the sake of the nation'.
Yoon was removed from office last year after the Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment, triggering a snap election won by liberal President Lee Jae Myung. Drone flights remain a flashpoint in tensions between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war.
