South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a seven-year prison sentence for former President Yoon Suk Yeol, the first ruling by the country’s highest court in cases stemming from his brief imposition of martial law in 2024. The decision finalizes the sentence in this specific case.
The Supreme Court affirmed an April ruling by the Seoul High Court, which found Yoon guilty of infringing on Cabinet members’ right to deliberate before he declared martial law. The lower court also found him guilty of falsifying the official proclamation to conceal procedural missteps and later destroying the document. Additionally, the ruling addressed his deployment of presidential security forces to illegally resist law enforcement efforts to arrest him in the weeks following his impeachment.
Yoon's martial law declaration, which lasted only a few hours, plunged South Korea into a political crisis. Lawmakers quickly repealed the measure after breaching a blockade at Seoul’s National Assembly, forcing Yoon’s Cabinet to lift the decree. The turmoil subsided after Yoon's liberal rival, Lee Jae Myung, won an early presidential election in June 2025.
According to testimony from several participants, including then-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Yoon unilaterally informed his 11 Cabinet members of his decision to impose martial law late on Dec. 3, 2024, rather than inviting them for deliberation. The Seoul High Court stated that Yoon also violated the rights of nine other Cabinet members by failing to call them to the meeting or notifying them too late.
The Constitutional Court, in removing Yoon from office in April 2025, had previously found that his martial law decree lacked legal grounds and did not follow required procedures, a view aligning with the Supreme Court's decision.
Yoon remains in detention and did not attend the Supreme Court's ruling. He is currently facing other trials and has appealed a life sentence for rebellion, the most serious charge against him. He is also appealing a 30-year prison term in a separate case related to alleged orders for drone flights in 2024, intended to heighten tensions with North Korea and create justification for domestic martial law. Yoon’s legal team has maintained that the drone flights were a response to North Korea's actions of flying thousands of trash-carrying balloons into the South.
Yoon’s legal team expressed “deep regret” over the Supreme Court’s ruling, stating that the justices concluded the case without sufficient review.