South Korea’s former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s week went from bad to worse on Friday afternoon after a Seoul court sentenced him to five years in prison.
Yoon was found guiltyย of obstructing justice, falsifying documents and abuse of power in relation to his failed declaration of martial law in December 2024.
In addition to corruption charges and of interfering in an investigation into the 2023 death of a soldier, Yoon is being tried in several cases linked to his short-lived attempt to use martial law powers to take control of the South Korean government.
The five-year prison term for the impeached former leader comes just days after prosecutors requested the death penalty in a parallel case against him. This case focuses on charges of Yoon leading an insurrection when he declared martial law.
That short-lived declarationย shocked South Korea and laid bare the deep political divisions in the country.
But while a hard core of his most ardent right-wing backers insist Yoon acted appropriately, most South Koreans โ including the moderate conservatives who supported him when he was in office โ agree that his actions were illegal.
Ordinary people ‘absolutely fed up’
Most Koreans, however, seem to be tired of the entire debacle, complete with the court cases and the bitter political divide, according to analysts.
“Ordinary Koreans are absolutely fed up with the whole thing,” saidย Kim Sang-woo, a former politician with the left-leaning South Korean Congress for New Politics and now a member of the board of the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation told DW.
Voters are keen to put the episode behind them and focus on dealing with day-to-day challenges like rising prices, unemployment and other closer-to-home issues, Kim said.
“They do not want to hear another word about Yoon, martial law or the trial, but the present government is very keen to keep it going.”
Yoon defiant as pressure mounts
President Lee Jae Myung and his center-left Democratic Party are keen to turn the screw on what is left of its badly damaged rival, the People’s Party Power, which was swept aside in a general election in June 2025, a defeat that has been mostly attributed to Yoon’s actions in late 2024.
“The Democratic Party is working hard to continue the impression that Yoon and the PPP disrupted democracy in Korea for their own political gain,” Kim said. “Keeping Yoon in the spotlight is a political maneuver because Lee’s party wants to keep power for as long as possible.”
Yoon has shown a defiant face in court this week, smiling and shaking his head when prosecutors demanded the death penalty on Tuesday.
How long will Yoon actually spend in prison?
The five-year sentence, while considerably less severe than what prosecutors had demanded, has been welcomed by many.
The centrist Korea Times newspaper published an editorial Thursday urging the court to show “no leniency for Yoon” and calling for the sentence to send the message that “history will not repeat itself.”
The editorial pointed out that Yoon has at no point apologized or shown any remorse for his actions, and has continued to insist that his actions were justified to counter the Democratic Party-controlled National Assembly.
“The court must rule wisely โ and as firmly as the law allows โ so the public can regain confidence in a democratic Korea,” it concluded.
Death sentence unlikely
Despite the pressure from rival politicians and parts of the public to punish Yoon,ย analysts say the legal cases are very unlikely to culminate in a death sentence.
“The death penalty exists in law, but it has not been used for more than 20 years and the prosecutors’ request is entirely symbolic,” said Rah Jong-yil, a retired diplomat.
Rah pointed out that South Korean courts have previously sentenced leaders to death after they have fallen from grace, most notably the military dictator Chun Doo-hwan, who ruled in the 1980s.
But that sentence was later downgraded to life in prison, and he was eventually pardoned in December 1997.
“My guess is that politics will turn again and Yoon will be pardoned and released from prison when the next conservative government is elected,” Rah said. “All politics is cyclical and sentences given to political leaders are very rarely carried out in full. All Yoon has to do is wait.”
Is this the end of the Yoon’s PPP?ย
Although Kim Sang-woo agrees that Yoon’s sentence will almost certainly be commuted, he believesย the former president’sย political career is over and that his party is unlikely to recover.
The PPP announced this week that it is planning to change its name in a bid to distance itself from Yoon’s tainted legacy, a strategy Kim described as “pathetic,” and a signal showing that the conservative party has grownย weak and irrelevant.
That is a cause for concern, he said, as a functioning democracy requires a strong and committed opposition to keep the ruling party on its toes.
Kim fears the Democratic Party is already making the most of its almost unlimited power with laws that entrench its position.
But the wheel will turn again, Kim said, pointing out that “every party, once it is in power, becomes arrogant and complacent and then it makes mistakes.”
“That will happen to the Democratic Party and the voters will one day turn their backs on them and elect a conservative party again. The only question is how soon.”
Edited by: Karl Sexton