Special counsel seeks 30-year term for ex-president over North drone incursion

A special counsel team on Friday demanded a 30-year prison term for former President Yoon Suk Yeol in his appeals trial over allegations that he ordered drone incursions into North Korea to provoke Pyongyang and justify his declaration of martial law.

Special counsel Cho Eun-seok’s team also sought a 30-year prison term for former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun on charges of benefiting the enemy and abuse of power in the same appeals trial at the Seoul High Court.

The team additionally requested a 20-year prison term for Yeo In-hyung, former commander of the now-dismantled Defense Counterintelligence Command, and a five-year term for Kim Yong-dae, former head of the Drone Operations Command, on the same charges.

Yoon was convicted by a lower court in June and sentenced to 30 years in prison for ordering the Drone Operations Command in October 2024 to send drones to Pyongyang in an attempt to provoke a military clash. The clash could have provided a pretext for his declaration of martial law in December that year.

Kim Yong-hyun was also given a 30-year prison term by the Seoul Central District Court, while Yeo received a 15-year prison term and former Drone Operations Command chief Kim Yong-dae was given a suspended three-year term.

The special counsel team said the defendants had abused their military command authority and operational control to provoke an armed clash with North Korea and provide a pretext for declaring martial law. It added that the nature of their crimes was more serious than that of insurrection.

Yonhap