Former South Korean president sentenced to life in prison for insurrection

Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol received a life sentence Thursday following his conviction on insurrection charges stemming from a failed martial law decree he imposed in December 2024.

State of play: Yoon, 65, was found guilty of rebellion by Judge Jee Kui-youn of the Seoul Central District Court for directing troops and police to surround parliament, detain political opponents and consolidate power outside constitutional limits. The judge ruled that his actions were designed to “block the Assembly building and arrest key figures … in order to prevent lawmakers from gathering to deliberate or vote.”

A special prosecutor pushed for the death penalty, though most legal observers had anticipated a life sentence given that the episode ended without bloodshed. A day later, Yoon released a statement apologizing for the “frustration and hardship” his decree brought upon the public, yet he stood behind the “sincerity and purpose” of his actions, dismissed the verdict as political retaliation and urged supporters to “unite and rise.”

Accountability in practice: Yoon’s life sentence affirms that South Korea’s judicial institutions can hold even a former head of state accountable, a capacity built through four decades of democratic institution-building since Chun Doo-hwan’s military rule.

Still, the verdict also depended on factors beyond the courtroom, including citizens who converged on parliament in freezing rain so that lawmakers could achieve a quorum and vote to lift the decree, as well as soldiers who defied their orders. That fragility has drawn attention beyond South Korea’s borders, and for Korean Americans tracking a markedly different institutional response to executive overreach in the U.S., the divergence has prompted sharp comparisons about how democracies respond under pressure.

Yoon’s legal team may still appeal the conviction, which would send the case to a higher court.