SEOUL – South Korea’s ousted and jailed conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, is facing explosive new criminal charges. Prosecutors alleged Monday that he deliberately ordered drone flights over North Korea in October 2024, not for national defense, but as a calculated "false flag" operation to manufacture a national security crisis and provide a pretext for his subsequent, disastrous declaration of martial law.
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| FILE - South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, on Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, Pool, File) |
The new charges "benefiting the enemy" and "abuse of power" paint a stunning picture of a president allegedly attempting to provoke an armed conflict with the North to justify seizing domestic power.
The Anatomy of the Alleged Plot
Yoon is already in a detention center, standing trial on the grave charge of masterminding a rebellion. This stems from his shocking and ill-fated imposition of martial law on December 3, 2024, when he sent troops to surround the National Assembly in a move that triggered South Korea's most serious political crisis in decades. He was swiftly impeached, removed from office, and arrested.
His liberal successor, President Lee Jae Myung, quickly launched independent investigations into the martial law "stunt" and other allegations.
On Monday, the special investigation team, led by independent counsel Cho Eun-suk, revealed its findings from a separate probe. Yoon, along with two of his top defense officials former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun and ex-counterintelligence commander Yeo In-hyung were formally indicted.
The alleged plot unfolded two months before the martial law declaration:
The Incident: In October 2024, North Korea furiously accused Seoul of flying drones over its capital, Pyongyang, three times to drop propaganda leaflets.
The Reaction: At the time, Yoon's government gave confusing and evasive answers. His defense minister issued a vague denial, but the military later took the highly unusual step of saying it "couldn't confirm" the operation, fueling speculation.
The Result: The incident caused a sharp spike in inter-Korean tensions, with Pyongyang threatening a military response.
The "Smoking Gun" Memos
At a briefing on Monday, senior investigator Park Ji-young laid out the prosecution's case. She stated the trio "undermined the military interests of the Republic of Korea by increasing the danger of a South-North armed conflict."
The alleged motive: "...with the purpose of setting up an environment for declaring emergency martial law."
When Yoon finally did declare martial law on Dec. 3, he briefly cited "threats from North Korean communist forces" before pivoting to his main target: the "anti-state" National Assembly.
As stunning evidence, Park disclosed memos found on the mobile phone of Yeo, the ex-counterintelligence chief. The memos contained chilling phrases suggesting a deliberate plot to trigger a crisis:
"creating an unstable situation"
"drones"
"targets like Pyongyang"
The memos noted that such an action would force North Korea to respond due to "a loss of its face." Park declined to elaborate further, citing military secrecy.
Graver Charges Loom
There was no immediate public response from the indicted men. However, Yoon's defense team claimed in July that the-then president "wasn't informed" of the drone flights, a claim prosecutors now allege is false.
These new indictments, while shocking, are secondary to the primary charge of rebellion that Yoon already faces. A conviction for masterminding a rebellion, the most serious crime in the South Korean criminal code, carries a mandatory sentence of either life imprisonment or capital punishment.
The new drone charges add another layer of alleged criminality, suggesting the martial law declaration was not an impulsive decision but a premeditated plan, for which the administration was allegedly willing to risk a full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula.