The trial of ousted South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol began on April 14, with the former president charged with leading an insurrection.
His defense argued that his brief martial law declaration late in 2024 was “not a coup d’etat,” as proceedings got underway in the Seoul Central District Court.
The attempt at martial law, which lasted for about six hours on Dec. 3, 2024, before Yoon backed down in the face of parliamentary opposition and public protests, forced South Korea into months of political turmoil and led to the Constitutional Court relieving him of the presidency this month.
After leaving his home in a motorcade, Yoon, who has denied all charges against him, walked into a Seoul courtroom on April 14, clad in a dark navy suit and red tie.
Beginning proceedings, prosecutors presented their case by arguing he lacked the legal grounds to declare martial law and accusing him of attempting to paralyze state institutions, including the parliament.
“The defendant ... made it impossible for constitutional institutions to exercise their authority based on an unlawful declaration,” the prosecution said.
Yoon, who had been South Korea’s chief prosecutor for almost two years before becoming president in 2022, spent some 40 minutes refuting the allegations during the course of the morning.
“It goes against legal principles to build an insurrection case based on an indictment that looks like a printout of an incident that lasted only a few hours and was lifted immediately in a nonviolent manner upon accepting the National Assembly’s demand to lift it.
“Martial law is not a coup d’etat.”
Yoon said that he had no intention of paralyzing the country.
He said the introduction of martial law was needed to make the populace aware of how the majority opposition party was stonewalling government by impeaching more than 20 officials, including the Board of Audit and Inspection chief, which Yoon said was a dangerous threshold event.
“This was a peaceful ‘message martial law’ to the nation. ... I knew this martial law would end within half a day, a day,” he said.
Yoon said that although he had communicated this intention to then-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, military officials carrying out the order apparently overstepped, as they are used to training for martial law under different guidelines.
Two senior military officers are expected to take the witness stand in the afternoon.
One, Cho Sung-hyun from the army’s capital defense command, had testified at the Constitutional Court in February that he was ordered to send troops to “drag” lawmakers out of parliament during the martial law order, which Yoon denies.
The martial law declaration, which cited the need to root out “anti-state” elements, was lifted six hours after it was imposed after parliamentary staffers used barricades and fire extinguishers to ward off special operations soldiers trying to enter parliament, which at the same time voted to reject the imposition of martial law.
The charge of insurrection is punishable by life imprisonment or even death, although South Korea has not carried out an execution since 1997.
Yoon, a conservative, returned to his private home on April 11 from the official residence, with crowds of supporters turning out to greet his motorcade.
He has sworn to “stand by” his supporters, while the opposition Democratic Party decried him as delusional for not apologizing.
Lee Jae-myung, the opposition leader, is currently leading in the polls, while Hong Joon-pyo, a former prosecutor who lost in the conservative party’s primary to Yoon for the previous presidential election, has announced that he will run for the role again.
