South Korea’s former President Yoon Suk Yeol has been indicted on fresh allegations of abuse of power and conspiring to assist an enemy state, following his brief imposition of martial law last year, a special prosecutor’s office announced Monday.
According to spokesperson Park Ji-young, the indictment centers on evidence found on a military official’s mobile device, which included references to “drones” and “surgical strike” operations. Prosecutors claim these suggest Yoon was contemplating provocative action against North Korea with the intent to stoke military tension and create grounds for military rule.
Yoon was ousted from office in April 2024 after the Constitutional Court found him guilty of insurrection linked to his failed attempt to institute martial law. If convicted on the current charges, he could face the death penalty.
Throughout ongoing proceedings, Yoon has maintained that there was no real intention to install military rule. Instead, he claims the martial law declaration aimed to expose alleged misconduct by opposition parties and defend democracy from anti-state forces.
The prosecutor alleged that Yoon, alongside former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun and former military intelligence chief Yeo In-hyung, actively sought to provoke a North Korean military response to justify martial law. Documents retrieved from the aforementioned phone suggest coordinated efforts to engineer a crisis, according to the prosecutor’s briefing.
Both Kim and Yeo face similar charges. The special prosecutor further alleges that the three ordered covert drone flights into North Korea to escalate tensions between the two countries and rationalize Yoon’s emergency decree.
In October last year, Pyongyang accused the South of dispatching drones to distribute anti-North Korea leaflets, later publishing photos of debris purportedly from a South Korean drone. At that time, South Korean defense officials neither confirmed nor denied involvement in such operations, and a defense ministry representative declined comment on Monday as well.
Kim, previously defense minister, is also currently standing trial for his alleged role in the martial law crisis. According to coverage from local media, Yeo has conveyed regret for not opposing Yoon’s orders. The prosecutor’s spokesperson on Monday dismissed Yeo’s excuses for notes found on his phone as implausible.
