South Korean ex-leader is sentenced to life in prison

President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea in Seoul on Sept. 14, 2022. A special counsel asked a court in Seoul on Jan. 13, 2026 to sentence Yoon to death, on the charge of leading an insurrection when he briefly imposed martial law ​on his country in late 2024. (Woohae Cho/The New York Times)

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday after being found guilty of masterminding an insurrection when he declared martial law in 2024, a move that plunged the country into a constitutional crisis.

Prosecutors had demanded a death sentence for Yoon, 65, who has been on trial since April on a series of criminal charges stemming from that short-lived martial law declaration. The judges at the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday ruled on the most serious of them: being the ringleader of an insurrection.

It was the most momentous criminal trial in South Korea since former military dictator Chun Doo-hwan was sentenced to death nearly 30 years ago on the same charge.

While sentencing Yoon to life imprisonment, presiding Judge Ji Gwi-yeon​ said Yoon had “flouted legal procedures and resorted to violent means to try to incapacitate the National Assembly and undermine democratic norms.”

Ji said that while Yoon deserved a harsh sentence, he took into account Yoon’s age and the fact that he had refrained from using lethal force during the period of martial law.

Yoon, who denied the charges against him, has a week to appeal the verdict and ruling.

The verdict will offer closure to many South Koreans left exhausted by the tumultuous period that followed Yoon’s declaration. The drastic measure had threatened to unwind decades of democracy South Koreans had won through great sacrifice after many years of military rule.

Protesters opposed to Yoon gathered outside the courthouse Thursday. Many called for the maximum punishment. “Death sentence! Death sentence! Death sentence!” they chanted at one rally.

But the verdict is unlikely to heal divisions in a deeply polarized country where the former president still has a sizable base of loyal supporters, some of whom also turned up at the courthouse.

Yoon declared martial law on the night of Dec. 3, 2024, saying it was necessary to eliminate what he called “anti-state forces” within the opposition-dominated National Assembly. He called the legislature a “den of criminals” who he said used their parliamentary majority power to paralyze his government.

His decree banned all political activities and placed the news media under military control. Armed troops raided the National Assembly and the National Election Commission. The court on Thursday also found that Yoon had ordered troops to arrest his political enemies.

Public outrage almost immediately scuttled Yoon’s ​attempt to rule by martial law. As soon as they saw Yoon declare ​it on TV, citizens rushed to the National Assembly to confront the troops who had come to take over the legislature​ under the president’s orders. While the crowd held the troops back​ to prevent them from seizing its main chamber, lawmakers gathered ​inside and voted down his decree in the middle of the night.

Yoon was forced to withdraw it after six hours.​ But his power grab set off South Korea’s worst political crisis in decades, with its democracy undergoing a stress test as the country impeached the president, arrested those involved in the martial law episode, and elected a new leader, Lee Jae Myung.

​The court’s ruling said that what Yoon and his collaborators did during the short period of martial law was an act of insurrection. Yoon has said that his declaration was a legitimate use of presidential power to alert South Koreans to the danger posed by his enemies in the political left.

Here’s what we’re covering:

— Political polarization:  South Korea’s political divide was on display outside the courthouse, where pro- and anti-Yoon groups blared their respective slogans through loudspeakers.

— Other rulings:  The court that sentenced Yoon also delivered verdicts on seven other officials, all of whom were indicted on charges of playing a role in his imposition of martial law. Five were convicted and two were acquitted.

— Historical echo: Yoon’s insurrection trial revived memories among many South Koreans of Chun Doo-hwan, the widely reviled dictator who was found guilty of the same charge nearly 30 years ago.

— Inmate No. 3617​: Since his latest arrest, Yoon has been sleeping on a floor mattress in a 70-square-foot jail cell — a world apart from his presidential hilltop mansion.