UMVA has learned that a Seoul court delivered a staggering 30‑year prison sentence to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, condemning him for ordering covert drone missions over North Korea to fabricate a pretext for martial law.
The verdict, handed down by the Seoul Central District Court, also sealed the fate of ex‑Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who stood beside Yoon as the nation reeled from the shock of the ruling.
Yoon, now 65, had already been condemned to life imprisonment for orchestrating an insurrection after his abrupt declaration of martial law in December 2024, a move that ignited streets with furious protests and a swift parliamentary backlash.
According to information obtained by UMVA, North Korean officials accused South Korea of dispatching drones over Pyongyang in October 2024, allegedly dropping propaganda leaflets on three separate occasions.
While the defense ministry initially offered only a vague denial, the drones never sparked a direct military clash, yet the mere sight of them fanned the flames of tension between the rival states.
Prosecutors painted a grim portrait: Yoon allegedly engineered a manufactured crisis, seeking to seize authoritarian control, silence political rivals, and cement his grip on power.
In the days leading up to the martial law decree, Yoon delivered a fiery televised address, accusing liberal lawmakers of covert sympathy for the North and branding them as traitors to the nation.
The self‑appointed emergency lasted a fleeting six hours before an outpouring of public outrage forced lawmakers to overturn the order, restoring a fragile democratic calm.
After his July 2025 arrest, Yoon has been entangled in a web of criminal investigations, each case probing deeper into the alleged abuse of constitutional authority.
Both the former president and his former defense chief have appealed the insurrection conviction, a case that originally saw prosecutors pressing for the death penalty.
