South Korea’s prosecutors are seeking the harshest penalty—death—for the nation’s disgraced former President Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration in late 2024, after which he was arrested and impeached.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The special prosecutor’s team made the request during the final hearing of Yoon’s trial, which began Tuesday morning at the Seoul Central District Court but stretched on after midnight into Wednesday.
In their statement reported by Korean media, prosecutors accused Yoon of leading an insurrection, arguing that he, along with his fellow defendants in court, declared martial law with the purpose of “monopolizing power and maintaining long-term rule” and “disregarded the suffering of the people and for the sake of their own lust for power.”
They also argued, in making the case for capital punishment, that Yoon “showed no remorse” and had not apologized to the people of South Korea.
Upon hearing the sentence request, the 65-year-old Yoon smiled inscrutably from his dock in court, while the gallery reportedly erupted with jeers from his supporters.
Yoon also gave his final remarks shortly after midnight. In his 90-minute statement, Yoon harangued the prosecutors, saying they remind him “of a pack of wolves blindly chasing after the whistle blown by the Democratic Party”—referring to the now-ruling party led by Yoon’s liberal rival and successor Lee Jae-myung—“and by the dark forces that have long ruled this country.”
Yoon also countered the argument that he was attempting to cling on to power through his martial law declaration. “How would I even manage a long-term dictatorship? I wouldn’t even know how to do it if I were asked,” he reportedly said. “How could someone like me, an idiot, even attempt a coup?… You need political savvy for that.”
The court is slated to issue its ruling on Feb. 19.
What did Yoon do?
Yoon, a staunch conservative and former prosecutor-general who was elected to South Korea’s top office in 2022, declared emergency martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. The declaration—which was accompanied by accusations against the then-opposition Democratic Party that held a legislative majority, making Yoon a lame-duck President, of engaging in “anti-state” activities—only lasted six hours before lawmakers stepped in and invalidated it.
Observers said the move amounted to political suicide: he was impeached 11 days later, and was formally ousted from the presidency the following April.
Shortly after taking office in June, Lee swiftly approved legislation that launched independent probes into Yoon’s martial law gambit as well as other criminal allegations involving Yoon and those in his orbit.
Seven former military and police officials were tried alongside Yoon for their alleged part in imposing martial law.
Yoon has repeatedly defended his declaration of martial law, and said in his latest court statement that the public saw his decision as “a measure to protect the freedom and sovereignty of the people and to preserve the nation and its constitution.”
Prosecutors in Tuesday’s hearing, which focused on the insurrection charge, refuted Yoon’s claims of protecting democracy, saying that the former President worked with the police and military “to forcibly suspend the exercise of power and functions of the National Assembly, while attempting to arrest political opponents and blockade critical media outlets.” They also argued that Yoon’s martial law declaration triggered sordid memories for South Koreans, saying that people “immediately” expressed “extreme anxiety and anger” while “recalling memories of the martial law and power seizure by the Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo regimes in 1980,” referring to the country’s former Presidents, both of whom were convicted of insurrection and other offenses.
The trial over Yoon’s alleged insurrection is just one of his eight separate criminal cases over activity during his scandal-ridden tenure. Among the other charges he faces are ordering drone flights over North Korea to foment tensions and justify his martial law declaration, and attempting to manipulate an investigation into a South Korean marine’s drowning, which Yoon allegedly tried to alter to exclude blame being placed on a specific commander. Yoon has denied all the charges leveled against him.
Will Yoon get the death penalty?
South Korea’s criminal code spells out the possible penalties that an insurrection ringleader could face: death, life imprisonment with labor, or life imprisonment without labor.
Experts tell TIME, however, that the seeking of the death penalty for Yoon is largely a symbolic gesture. “It is more likely that a life sentence will be imposed, or that even if a death sentence is initially handed down, it will later be commuted to life imprisonment through presidential pardon,” says Kang Won-taek, a professor of politics at Seoul National University, adding that the country has effectively maintained a moratorium on executions.
The President’s office said in a statement after the request for the death penalty that it believes the judiciary “will make a ruling in accordance with the law, principles, and the public’s expectations.”
South Korea pushed through with its last executions in December 1997, and while convicts have been sentenced to death in recent years, no executions have taken place since 1997, which rights groups have viewed as a de facto abolition.
Courts also don’t always uphold death sentences. In the case of former President Chun, prosecutors also sought capital punishment on insurrection charges, but an appellate court reduced a previously handed death sentence to life imprisonment. Chun and his successor Roh, whose two-decade initial prison term was also shortened, both received presidential pardons a few years later.
Imposing the death penalty on Yoon would be a regression for South Korea, says Amnesty International’s Chiara Sangiorgio. “No one is above the law, including a former president, but seeking the death penalty is a step backward,” she said in a statement. “The death penalty is an inherently cruel, inhuman and irreversible punishment that has no place in a justice system that claims to respect human rights.”
However the legal proceedings conclude, Ryu Yongwook, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, says that the tensions birthed by Yoon’s martial law declaration are unlikely to die anytime soon. “With Yoon trying to drum up his dwindling but very vocal supporters,” he says, “the political battle might still linger on.”
