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Agence France-Presse

A court has sentenced a former South Korean justice minister to 25 years in prison for his role in ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol’s brief and disastrous declaration of martial law in 2024.
Park Sung-jae was found guilty of involvement in “insurrection”, the Yonhap news agency reported from the Seoul Central District Court on Monday.
Yoon’s December 2024 martial law declaration lasted only about six hours as lawmakers raced to the assembly building and voted it down in an emergency session.
He has since been convicted of leading an insurrection, and is in detention while appealing a life sentence.
Yoon was also given a 30-year jail term earlier this month for sending drones to North Korea to “manufacture a national crisis” to justify his martial law.

Park had held a meeting of justice ministry officials in the early hours of the martial law and checked on prison capacity should the authorities arrest anti-government figures, prosecutors said.
As justice minister, he “instructed cooperation with the martial law command … on the assumption that a decree would be effective”, Yonhap quoted from the verdict.
Park also ordered immigration authorities to be prepared to impose travel bans, the court said.
Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence for Park, arguing he had “reduced the law to a tool of insurrection in his abuse of power and posed a challenge to the rule of law”.
They said he had shown no remorse.
Park had denied the charges, saying he was merely carrying out duties required during a national emergency.
His lawyers did not immediately say whether they would appeal.
Yoon’s shock late-night national televised address in 2024 plunged South Korea into an unprecedented political crisis.


It triggered protests, sent the stock market plunging and caught key allies like the United States off guard.
A circle of Yoon subordinates has been given hefty sentences.
Former prime minister Han Duck-soo, who once toyed with a presidential run himself, is serving 15 years in prison, and former interior minister Lee Sang-min, nine years.
Last week, former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun was sentenced to three years in prison for revealing classified military information in furtherance of the insurrection.
Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon-hee, is serving a four-year term for stock manipulation and bribery unrelated to the martial law fiasco.
Additional reporting by Associated Press


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Park met justice ministry officials and checked on prison capacity for holding critics in the early hours of martial law, prosecutors said


Park met justice ministry officials and checked on prison capacity for holding critics in the early hours of martial law, prosecutors said.


South Korea’s ex-justice minister jailed for 25 years over martial law bid

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Park met justice ministry officials and checked on prison capacity for holding critics in the early hours of martial law, prosecutors said

Park met justice ministry officials and checked on prison capacity for holding critics in the early hours of martial law, prosecutors said