Overview
- Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team asked the Seoul Central District Court to sentence Yoon Suk Yeol to death over his December 2024 martial law move, calling it a self-coup to seize state institutions.
- Prosecutors said Yoon mobilized troops and police to block the National Assembly and ordered arrests of political leaders, citing a planner’s memo and a commander’s testimony.
- Yoon rejected the charges in a final statement, arguing the declaration fell within presidential emergency powers and denouncing the investigations as “frenzied.”
- South Korean law mandates death or life imprisonment for insurrection, yet the country has not executed anyone since 1997, and judges can reduce a sentence on conviction.
- Sentencing requests also targeted former security chiefs, and Yoon still faces parallel cases, including a prior 10-year request tied to alleged obstruction and a separate trial over purported drone flights toward North Korea.