Special counsel seeks death penalty for ex-President Yoon over martial law declaration

The special counsel team asked a court to sentence former President Yoon Suk Yeol to death, arguing that his declaration of emergency martial law amounted to an act of insurrection that gravely threatened the constitutional order.

In closing arguments at the Seoul Central District Court on January 13, the special counsel team led by Cho Eun-seok urged judges to impose the death penalty on Yoon, who is standing trial on charges of leading an insurrection.

The request came 406 days after Yoon declared an emergency state of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024.

“The declaration of martial law fundamentally undermined national security and the survival of the people by abandoning the constitutional duty to safeguard the Constitution and promote citizens’ freedoms,” said special counsel Park Eok-su. “Judging by its purpose, means and manner of execution, it has the character of an anti-state act.”

Yoon is accused of conspiring with former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and others to incite an insurrection aimed at undermining the constitutional order, including by declaring unconstitutional and illegal emergency martial law despite the absence of war, armed conflict or other signs of a comparable national emergency.

He also faces allegations of deploying martial law troops and police to block the National Assembly and obstruct its vote to lift martial law, and of attempting to arrest and detain key figures — including National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik, President Lee Jae Myung, who was then leader of the liberal Democratic Party, former conservative People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon and staff members of the National Election Commission.

“It has become clear who the so-called anti-state forces were that former President Yoon cited as justification for declaring emergency martial law,” said Park. “A grave incident of constitutional destruction by anti-state forces, unprecedented in the nation’s constitutional history,” citing the military storming of the National Assembly and the National Election Commission, as well as attempts to cut off power and water supplies to media outlets.

Park stressed that “to prevent the repetition of a tragic past, it is necessary to punish him more strictly than Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae-woo,” citing bloody crackdowns of democratic uprisings that were committed under Chun’s authoritarian regime in the 1980s.

Park pointed out that while Korea is “effectively a de facto abolitionist country,” that the death penalty is “still sought and handed down,” saying that the court should “seriously consider the possibility of recurrence” of martial law.

The sentencing hearing was held in Courtroom 417, the main courtroom where former presidents — including Chun, Roh, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye — have stood trial for various charges including insurrection and corruption.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]