Yoon: 30 additional years because of North Korea drone flights

Accusation: favoring the enemy

Yoon was involved in the drone flights over Pyongyang in October 2024 from the beginning in order to create a pretext for the failed declaration of martial law in December 2024. The ex-president rejected the allegations. His lawyers said he neither ordered nor approved of the operation. The flights had nothing to do with martial law, but were a response to North Korean balloons full of garbage that had been sent across the border for months.

Prosecutors had called for a 30-year prison sentence for Yoon in April. The imprisoned conservative politician, who was once the country’s top prosecutor, was given a life sentence in February. A court had convicted him of sedition for attempting to declare martial law.

His actions plunged Asia’s fourth-largest economy into a serious political crisis. Yoon was removed from office last year after the Constitutional Court confirmed his removal from office. The liberal politician Lee Jae Myung emerged as the winner of the early election that was triggered by this. Yoon can appeal Friday’s ruling.