SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — A South Korean court sentenced ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison on Friday for sending military drones into North Korea, saying he planned the action as pretext for his disastrous martial law declaration in 2024.
The drone flights two months before Yoon suspended civilian rule, had sparked anger in Pyongyang, which accused the South of dropping propaganda leaflets as well.
Judges said Yoon intended to provoke Pyongyang “into carrying out armed or equivalent acts against South Korea’s military of people,” according to a summary of their ruling seen by Agence France-Presse.
Yoon planned to “heighten inter-Korean military tensions and manufacture a national crisis” so his martial law could have been justified, they added.
The former president was given 30 years in jail over the drone incursion, a spokesperson for the Seoul Central District Court told AFP Friday.
Yoon is in detention while he appeals a life sentence for leading an insurrection with his martial law declaration.
He insists that he declared martial law “solely for the sake of the nation.”
His defense has also denied the charge over the drones, arguing that operation was in response to North Korea sending balloons carrying trash across the border that year.
On Friday, the court’s judges said the 2024 drone operation “entailed the use of South Korea’s military capabilities for private purposes.”
The judges added that powers vested in the president, including supreme command of the armed forces and the authority to declare martial law, must be exercised to protect the nation’s survival and security.
But Yoon approved the military drone operation, “believing he could arbitrarily use such powers for his own political gain,” the judges said.