South Korea’s ex-president Yoon handed 30-year term over North Korea drone operation

South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Friday for authorizing drone incursions into North Korea, in a case prosecutors said was part of an effort to manufacture a security crisis ahead of his controversial 2024 martial law declaration.

Special prosecutors alleged that Yoon sought to “fabricate wartime conditions” through the drone operation, arguing that the move jeopardized national security and heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The Seoul Central District Court handed down the 30-year sentence, adding to the life term Yoon received in February after being convicted of leading an insurrection through his martial law decree.

According to prosecutors, the drone flights not only escalated friction with North Korea but also resulted in the exposure of classified military information when some of the drones crashed. They contended that the operation was part of a broader attempt to justify extraordinary emergency measures.

Yoon has appealed his insurrection conviction, maintaining that the martial law declaration was made solely in the national interest. His legal team also rejected the drone-related charges, insisting there was no evidence that Yoon ordered or approved the operation.

His lawyers argued that the flights were a legitimate response to North Korea’s launch of trash-filled balloons across the border and had no connection to the martial law declaration. They dismissed the prosecution’s allegations as speculative and unfounded.

Drone operations remain a sensitive issue between the two Koreas, which are still technically at war. Earlier this year, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret after an investigation found that government officials had sent drones into North Korea in January. While Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, described Lee’s remarks as “wise behavior,” hopes for improved relations have since dimmed as Pyongyang renewed its hostile rhetoric toward Seoul.