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By Lawrence Agbo
A South Korean court has sentenced former Justice Minister Park Sung-jae to 25 years in prison over his involvement in ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol’s controversial martial law declaration in 2024.
The ruling was delivered on Monday by the Seoul Central District Court, which found Park guilty of “insurrection” linked to the short-lived imposition of martial law that plunged the country into political turmoil.
Park, who appeared in court on June 22 before the verdict, was immediately taken into custody after the sentencing.
The case stems from Yoon’s late-night declaration of martial law in December 2024, a move that lasted only about six hours before lawmakers quickly gathered and voted it down in an emergency parliamentary session.
Yoon has since been convicted of leading an insurrection and remains in detention while appealing a life sentence. He was also handed a separate 30-year prison term this month for allegedly deploying drones into North Korea in an attempt to create a national security crisis and justify the martial law order.
Prosecutors argued that Park played a key administrative role in the fallout, including convening Justice Ministry officials shortly after the declaration to assess detention capacity for potential arrests of government opponents.
In its judgment, the court said Park’s actions contributed to a situation that nearly undermined civil liberties and the constitutional order.
“Due to the actions of the defendant, the country nearly faced a situation in which the people’s fundamental rights and the basic order of liberal democracy could have been violated,” presiding judge Lee Jin-gwan said.
The court also noted that Park ignored internal warnings about the legality of the martial law declaration and proceeded with related preparations regardless.
Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence, arguing that Park abused his authority and enabled what they described as an attempted insurrection.
Following the verdict, Park was detained immediately, having previously been on trial without being held in custody.
The case is part of a wider wave of convictions tied to Yoon’s failed martial law bid. Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is serving a 15-year sentence, former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min has been jailed for nine years, and former Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun received a three-year term for disclosing classified military information linked to the affair.
Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, is also serving a four-year sentence in a separate corruption-related case involving stock manipulation and bribery.
