South Korean court gives ex-president Yoon 30 years in drone case

SEOUL: A South Korean court on Friday sentenced former president Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison in a case tied to military drones sent over Pyongyang, according to Yonhap.

The Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty of abuse of power and aiding the enemy, saying he had been involved from the beginning in the October 2024 drone operation. Prosecutors had requested the same 30-year sentence in April.

Yoon denied wrongdoing. His lawyers said he neither ordered nor later approved the drone mission, and argued that it had no connection to the failed martial law declaration in December 2024. They said the operation was instead a response to months of North Korean balloon launches carrying rubbish across the border.

The latest ruling adds to a series of court decisions against the former conservative leader, whose martial law order triggered South Korea’s most serious political crisis in decades. In February, another South Korean court sentenced him to life imprisonment after convicting him of leading an insurrection linked to the martial law attempt. Yoon was later removed from office after the Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment, leading to a snap election won by liberal President Lee Jae Myung. He is already in custody and can appeal Friday’s lower court decision.