The first-trial verdict for former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is accused of ordering the Drone Operations Command to carry out a mission to send drones into Pyongyang to create justification for the Dec. 3 martial law, will come this week.
According to legal sources on the 7th, the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 36 (Presiding Judge Lee Jeong-yeop) will hold the first-trial sentencing hearing on the 12th for Yoon's case on ordinary espionage and abuse of authority to obstruct the exercise of rights.
The verdict for former Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun, who faces the same charges, is also scheduled for the same day.
Former President Yoon and former Minister Kim are accused of flying drones into North Korea more than 10 times in Oct.–Nov. 2024 to provoke attacks against the South in order to build a rationale for the Dec. 3 martial law.
The insurrection special counsel team led by Cho Eun-suk, which indicted President Yoon, says this heightened military tensions between the two Koreas and, as drones crashed, led to the leakage of military secrets such as operations and force structure, undermining military interests.
At the sentencing hearing on Apr. 24, the special counsel sought 30 years in prison for former President Yoon and 25 years for former Minister Kim. At the time, the special counsel said, "This crime caused concrete harm to national security, resulting in a severe undermining of the Republic of Korea's military interests."
Yoon's defense team argued, "There was no harm whatsoever to the Republic of Korea's military interests, and the military's response operation to North Korea's filth-balloon provocation was merely a legitimate exercise of self-defense and had nothing to do with martial law."
Meanwhile, the court plans to bolster security in anticipation of large numbers of supporters gathering near the courthouse.