Former President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during his insurrection trial at Seoul Central District Court, Dec. 29, 2025. Courtesy of Seoul Central District Court
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol is set to receive the first verdict Thursday on whether his 2024 imposition of martial law constituted an insurrection following special prosecutors' recommendation of the death penalty.
The sentencing hearing is scheduled to be held at the Seoul Central District Court at 3 p.m. with the jailed former president in attendance and the proceedings broadcast live on national television.
Yoon was indicted in January last year on charges of leading an insurrection through his brief imposition of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, which lasted six hours.
He is accused of mobilizing troops and the police to seal off the National Assembly compound with the aim of preventing lawmakers from voting down his decree, and ordering the arrest of the National Assembly speaker and the then leaders of the ruling and main opposition parties, among other things.
According to his indictment, Yoon conspired with former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and others to stage a riot aimed at subverting the Constitution and illegally declared martial law in the absence of war or an equivalent national emergency.
During the trial's final hearing last month, special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team requested the death penalty for the former president, saying he deserved the maximum sentence for declaring martial law "with the purpose of remaining in power for a long time by seizing the judiciary and legislature."
"The nature of the crime is serious as he mobilized physical resources that should have been used only in the interest of the national collective," the team said.
Yoon reiterated his claim of innocence in his final statement, arguing that the exercise of a president's constitutional state emergency right cannot constitute an insurrection.
"It was not a military dictatorship that suppresses citizens, but an effort to safeguard freedom and sovereignty, and revive the constitutional order," he said.
Source: Korea Times News
