Yoon gets two years in free poll case as ruling deviates from former first lady's acquittal
A Seoul court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to two years in prison for illegally receiving free opinion polls from a political broker, with an appeal expected.
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a trial held at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul on Sept. 26, 2025.JOINT PRESS CORPS
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to two years in prison Monday in his first trial on charges of receiving free opinion polls from a political broker.
Five of the eight criminal cases against Yoon have now produced verdicts, with appeals expected.
The Seoul Central District Court handed down the sentence after finding Yoon guilty of violating the Political Funds Act. The court also ordered him to forfeit 13.96 million won ($9,300).
Self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and was taken into custody in the courtroom over concerns that he could destroy evidence.
Previously, a special prosecutor team led by Min Joong-ki requested a sentence of four years in prison and a fine of 137.2 million won for former President Yoon, and three years in prison for Myung.
The court found former President Yoon guilty only of 14 instances of free provision of opinion polls worth approximately 270 million won on 58 occasions from Myung between June 2021 and March 2022, out of the charges alleging that he conspired with his spouse, Kim Keon Hee, and calculated the financial gain obtained from this crime to be approximately 27.92 million won.
The court found that the two men had struck an unspoken bargain.
"There was a step-by-step, tacit meeting of the minds between the Yoon couple and Myung to carry out the polls and receive the results," the court said. "They are found to have received not only the poll results but also advice on how the race was shaping up and on election strategy."
The court held that the value of polling commissioned for a particular candidate amounts to political funds in itself, and that the couple knew they were being given the surveys for free, which established intent.
Self-proclaimed political broker Myung Tae-kyun arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul on July 13.YONHAP
The court also found that Yoon had promised Myung a party nomination for former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun in return for the polls, and had then leaned on the nomination through Chang Je-won, his chief of staff during the presidential transition. Kim won the seat, in the Uichang constituency of Changwon, South Gyeongsang, in a June 2022 parliamentary by-election.
The court was sharp in explaining the sentence.
"His responsibility for deepening the public's distrust of politics and setting back the development of democracy is not light," the court said. "Even so, before the investigators he made claims that contradicted the objective evidence, such as that he did not know Myung ran opinion polls, and in court he even shot back at the special counsel's questions, 'Is there evidence? Then present it.'" It said a punishment matching the wrongdoing was unavoidable.
The court was similarly critical of Myung.
"[Myung] supplied the free polls to expand his own political clout, had designed or skewed some of the surveys to favor Yoon," the court said. " [This action] damaged the fairness and transparency of polling."
"Yet he had shown no contrition and had pressed implausible claims in court."
The sentencing had been set for June 23 but was pushed back twice, after the court decided it needed more time to write and review the ruling given the weight of the case.
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, sits in a courtroom at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on April 21, 2025. Former First Lady Kim Keon Hee, right, appears as a witness during a hearing on April 13 at the same court.NEWS1, YONHAP
This ruling contradicts the judgment in which Kim Keon Hee, who was separately indicted on the same charges, was found not guilty in both the first and second trials. The courts in the first and second trials that heard Kim's case ruled that the charge of violating the Political Funds Act did not stand, stating that it was difficult to conclude that the couple obtained financial benefits equivalent to the cost of the opinion polls, citing evidence such as the fact that Ms. Myung provided opinion polls not only to former President Yoon and his wife but also to other individuals.
Yoon's lawyers said they would appeal.
"Kim Keon Hee's case ended in acquittal at both the first trial and on appeal, and it is hard to understand a partial conviction in a case with exactly the same facts," the defense team said.
The lawyers also relayed a remark Yoon made after the ruling.
"I am fine, but I am worried about the future of our judiciary," Yoon said.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
