Yoon insurrection verdict set for Feb. 19

The first verdict in the trial charging former President Yoon Suk Yeol as the ringleader of an insurrection will be delivered on Feb. 19, shortly after the Lunar New Year holiday. The ruling will mark the court’s first judgment on the insurrection charges, coming 443 days after Yoon declared martial law on Dec. 3, 2024.

Even after Special Counsel Cho Eun-seok urged the court to sentence him to death, Yoon repeated his long-standing claim, asking, “Have you ever seen an insurrection carried out with an empty gun with no bullets?” During the closing hearing, which continued past midnight into Jan. 14, Yoon said in his final statement that the declaration of martial law was “an appeal for the public to monitor and check what I saw as ruinous wrongdoing.” He described the special counsel’s investigation as “a frenzied sword dance symbolizing purges and repression,” and claimed the martial law declaration had become “prey for packs of wolves driving an insurrection narrative.”

Yoon read aloud a prewritten final statement of about 17,000 characters over roughly 90 minutes. At times, he appeared visibly agitated, pounding the table and thrusting his fist into the air. Insisting that all charges presented by the special counsel were false, he repeatedly used the words “fiction” and “delusion,” six and seven times, respectively. As Yoon’s statement grew longer, the closing hearing, which began at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 13, did not conclude until 2:25 a.m. on Jan. 14, after more than 17 hours.

Among the co-defendants tried alongside Yoon, former Defense Intelligence Command chief Noh Sang-won, former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Kim Bong-sik and former National Assembly Security Unit chief Mok Hyun-tae each expressed regret in their final statements and apologized for causing public concern. Yoon, however, did not offer an apology. After the hearing ended, he smiled and shook hands with members of his legal team.

The court said it would reach its decision based solely on the Constitution, the law and the evidence, and set Feb. 19 as the date for the first trial verdict. Under the law, the charge of leading an insurrection carries only three possible sentences: death, life imprisonment or life imprisonment without labor. At the court’s discretion, however, the sentence may be reduced to a fixed prison term of at least 10 years. A suspended sentence is not permitted.


송혜미 1am@donga.com