South Korea prosecutor seeks death penalty for ex-president Yoon over martial law

By Joyce Lee and Kyu-seok Shim

SEOUL, Jan 13 (Reuters) – South Korea’s special prosecutor requested the death penalty on Tuesday for former President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of masterminding an insurrection over his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024. 

South Korea has not carried out a death sentence in nearly three decades. 

In closing arguments at the Seoul Central District Court, a prosecutor said investigators confirmed the existence of a scheme allegedly directed by Yoon and his former defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, dating back to October 2023 designed to keep Yoon in power.

“Yoon… claims to have committed emergency martial law to protect liberal democracy, but his unconstitutional and illegal emergency martial law undermined the function of the National Assembly and the Election Commission… actually destroying the liberal democratic constitutional order,” the prosecutor said in final arguments.

“The defendant has not sincerely regretted the crime… or apologised properly to the people.”

Yoon, 65, has denied the charges. He was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying that he declared martial law to fend off the “wickedness that would ruin the nation”.

He has argued it was within his powers as president to declare martial law and that the action was aimed at sounding the alarm over opposition parties’ obstruction of government. 

The court is expected to rule on the case in February.

The sentence prosecutors seek is not always upheld in South Korean courts.

In a previous court case in 1995-1996, when former South Korean Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were accused of insurrection, prosecutors sought the death penalty and life in prison for Chun and Roh respectively.

A lower court handed down a death penalty for Chun and a 22-1/2-year jail term for Roh, before an appeals court revised sentencing to life in prison for Chun and a 17-year jail term for Roh. Both received a presidential pardon after spending about two years in jail.

South Korea last handed down a death sentence in 2016, but has not executed anyone since 1997.

The office of President Lee Jae Myung, who was elected after Yoon was ousted last year, said in a statement it “believes the judiciary will rule… in accordance with the law, principles, and public standards.”

(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Kyu-seok Shim; editing by Andrew Heavens, Alexandra Hudson)