South Korea court sentences ex-President Yoon to 30 years over North Korea drone case

SEOUL, South Korea — A Seoul court sentenced former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison on Friday for sending military drones to North Korea. The Seoul Central District Court announced the verdict, finding that Yoon planned the drone flights, carried out two months before his December 2024 martial law declaration, to provoke North Korea into armed or equivalent action against the South. According to the court's ruling summary, reported by AFP, the judges concluded that Yoon's aim was to heighten military tension between the two Koreas and manufacture a national crisis, creating grounds to justify his martial law decision. The court said he sought to push Pyongyang into a provocative response directed at the South Korean military or population. Yoon is already serving a life sentence related to his martial law declaration, which he has appealed. He has argued that the martial law was issued for the country's benefit and that the drone operation was a response to North Korea sending balloons carrying trash across the border. North Korea had accused the South of dropping propaganda leaflets following the drone flights.