Special Counsel Seeks 30-Year Sentence for Yoon in Appeal Over 'Pyongyang Drone Operation' Charge

Special Counsel Seeks 30 Years in Prison for Former Defense Minister Kim Yonghyun

The special counsel team led by Jo Eun-seok has asked the appeals court to sentence former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in prison, the same sentence handed down by the trial court, over allegations that he ordered the “Pyongyang drone operation” to create a pretext for the December 3 martial law declaration.

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Yonhap News Agency

On the 16th, the special counsel team sought 30-year prison terms for Yoon and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun in closing arguments at their appeal trial on general treason charges, held before the Seoul High Court’s Criminal Division 1, presided over by Judge Yoon Seong-sik. Prosecutors also sought 20 years in prison for former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung and five years for former Drone Operations Command chief Kim Yong-dae, who were indicted alongside them.

The special counsel team said, “The defendants in this case—the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the defense minister, and the head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command—abused their military command and operational authority to provoke North Korea into an armed provocation and create a pretext for declaring martial law on the grounds of a wartime situation, in a crime committed with a willingness to risk anything from a limited local conflict to a full-scale war.” It added, “The nature of their crimes is even more serious than that of insurrection.”

Regarding the first-instance ruling, the team argued, “Although Yeo In-hyung was a key planner who attended every meeting to conspire and used notes to devise and propose ways to create the conditions for martial law, it was unjust for the court below to reduce his sentence on the grounds that he played a passive role.” It also said, “The suspended prison sentence imposed at the first trial on Kim Yong-dae, who organized the use of subordinate soldiers to conceal and manipulate evidence of a grave crime and still denied the offense, was excessively lenient.”

Yoon and the others are accused of ordering the Drone Operations Command to send drones to Pyongyang around October 2024 to create the conditions for declaring martial law. They are also accused of abusing their authority in the course of issuing the operational order and making soldiers perform duties they were not obligated to perform.

Meanwhile, Yoon’s final defense arguments and final statement are scheduled for this afternoon’s hearing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.