Former President Yoon Suk Yeol appears at Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, Nov. 19, 2025, as a witness for the trial of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who faced charges including aiding insurrection and perjury. Courtesy of Seoul Central District Court
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol faces verdicts or proceedings in eight criminal trials this year, underscoring the unprecedented legal fallout from his 2024 martial law declaration and related scandals.
With Thursday’s ruling on insurrection charges opening a politically charged judicial calendar, Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee are awaiting first-instance judgment in multiple cases through the first half of 2026, with charges ranging from treason and abuse of power to political funding violation and bribery.
Yoon’s most serious case centers on an accusation that he led an insurrection by declaring martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, despite no war or comparable national emergency, in collusion with former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and senior military and police officials. The court sentenced Yoon to life in prison after finding him guilty of insurrection linked to the martial law declaration, following legal precedents from separate trials of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min.
Several other cases are set to run in parallel in the coming months.
Yoon is on trial over an alleged operation to send an unmanned aircraft toward Pyongyang in October 2024, a move special prosecutors say was designed to provoke tensions and justify martial law.
He also faces charges of perjury over testimony in Han’s trial, obstruction of an attempt by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials to arrest him and two separate cases tied to the 2023 death of a young Marine: one over alleged interference in the investigation and another for allegedly helping former Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup flee abroad to take up a post as ambassador to Australia.
Yoon is additionally charged with violating the Political Funds Act by allegedly receiving tens of millions of won worth of opinion polling for free from political broker Myung Tae-kyun and with spreading false information during the 2022 presidential race over his links to shamanic figure Jeon Seong-bae.
Kim, meanwhile, faces two remaining first-instance rulings this year over alleged illegal mass party enrollments involving members of the Unification Church and an influence-peddling case in which she is accused of accepting luxury jewelry and accessories in return for business and appointment favors.
Source: Korea Times News
