South Korea’s ex-president Yoon found guilty of insurrection

A South Korean court on Thursday found former president Yoon Suk-yeol guilty of insurrection and sentenced him to life in prison over his short-lived martial law decree that plunged the country into its most serious constitutional crisis in decades.The verdict, delivered by a three-judge panel of the Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Division 25, was the harshest and most consequential ruling yet stemming from Yoon’s brief imposition of martial law on December 3, 2024, and the events leading up to it.The court found that Yoon and his co-conspirators, including former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, committed insurrection by ordering troops and police to surround the opposition-controlled National Assembly as part of the martial law operation.The martial law attempt was thwarted by hundreds of citizens who blocked troops outside the National Assembly, while thousands of others held candlelight protests through freezing winter nights over several weeks to demand his punishment.Thursday’s decision is expected to reverberate far beyond the courtroom in a nation that has long prided itself on its hard-won democratic transition after decades of military rule.A pre-verdict opinion poll by broadcaster MBC found that 75 per cent of South Koreans expected Yoon to receive either the death penalty or life imprisonment.