A court in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, has handed down harsh sentences of up to 18 years in prison on Monday against five former high-ranking military officials for their role in the martial law proclaimed in 2024 by former president Yoon Suk Yeol, who has already been sentenced to life imprisonment for insurrection in the same case.
The court has held all the defendants responsible and has set 18 years in prison for Yeo In Hyung, former commander of the Defense Intelligence Command; 15 years for Lee Jin Woo, former head of the Capital Defense Command; twelve years for Moon Sang Ho, former head of Intelligence Command; ten years for Park An Su, who acted as commander during the period of martial law; and nine years for Kwak Jong Keun, who was then in charge of the Special Operations Command.
The judges have declared the five guilty of several crimes, including ordering the deployment of troops to the National Assembly during that day of maximum tension that triggered a serious political crisis in the country. The military was also sent to the vicinity of the National Election Commission.
Furthermore, it was determined that they participated in the preparation and execution of the detention of political leaders and high officials, actions for which the Prosecutor's Office sought sentences of up to 30 years in prison for some of them, according to data released by the Yonhap news agency.
The harshest sentence has fallen on Yeo, considered responsible for attempting to arrest even former president Lee Jae Myung, who at that time led the main opposition force, the Democratic Party. He is also attributed with having known at all times the "illegal nature" of the strategy applied, due to his repeated meetings with Yoon and former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun.
"The crimes of insurrection, which endanger the existence of the State, are so serious that they are not comparable to any other crime. The defendants abandoned their political neutrality at the military level and politically used the Army for their own party interests," it has pointed out.
The martial law, proclaimed in December 2024, was revoked a few hours later by the National Assembly, which approved a resolution demanding its withdrawal. In the following weeks, the deputies voted in favor of the removal of the president and, in April 2025, he was finally removed from office after the Constitutional Court endorsed the impeachment process against him.