Court links drone operation to martial law

The court's ruling on June 12 that the so-called Pyongyang drone operation involving former President Yoon Suk Yeol and others was an illegal mission linked to preparations for martial law was based on evidence that the operation bypassed the military's normal chain of command and proceeded despite repeated objections from senior officers.

According to special counsel Cho Eun-suk's team, which is investigating the alleged insurrection, the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 36, presided over by Judge Lee Jeong-yeop, found that former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun played the central role in planning and directing the operation. The court said the missions might have been carried out even more frequently had the Joint Chiefs of Staff not questioned Kim's intentions and pushed back against his orders.

Investigators found that shortly after taking office in September 2024, Kim instructed Lt. Gen. Lee Seung-o, head of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to conduct a drone infiltration mission into North Korea. Lee reportedly opposed the plan, arguing that circumstances did not justify such an operation. Even after reports surfaced in October 2024 that a drone had crashed near Pyongyang, objections from military officials continued. Prosecutors allege that Kim nevertheless pressed ahead with additional missions. The court also sided with prosecutors in finding that key national security procedures were bypassed. The operation proceeded without consultation with the standing committee of the National Security Council, and standard reporting channels to the National Security Office were not properly followed during either the planning or execution stages.

Yoon and the other defendants maintained that the operation was a routine military response to North Korea's launches of trash-filled balloons toward South Korea around May 2024. The court disagreed. North Korea did not send any such balloons for more than 20 days between Oct. 25 and Nov. 17, 2024. Yet drone missions continued during that period under Kim's direction, leading the court to conclude that they could not reasonably be viewed as a proportional response to a North Korean provocation.

The court found that Kim carried out the operation with the approval of Yoon, who was commander in chief at the time. It also concluded that former Defense Counterintelligence Commander Yeo In-hyung, a fellow Chungam High School alumnus of Kim, helped conceal the operation. Yeo was convicted on charges that included participating in the cover-up. Prosecutors said that after learning on Oct. 12, 2024, that a military drone had crashed in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, he identified it as "a friendly drone" and ordered personnel to retrieve both the aircraft and photographs documenting the incident.


고도예 기자 yea@donga.com