The special team of South Korea’s prosecutor general’s office investigating ousted former President Yoon Suk-yul, over his unsuccessful declaration of martial law nearly a year ago, on Monday filed additional charges of abuse of power and cooperation with the enemy in an operation linked to North Korea.
The new accusations relate to sending drones under Yoon’s order to the neighboring country, with which Seoul is still technically at war, an operation through which the former president was seeking to provoke Pyongyang to retaliate and use it as a pretext to declare martial law, according to details published by the local Yonhap news agency.
The unmanned devices were sent into North Korean territory in October 2024, when the same regime reported an incursion of South Korean drones to spread anti-North Korean leaflets over Pyongyang and posted photos of the remains of a military drone that crashed in Seoul.
At the time, the South Korean military refused to comment on that operation.
The special team of prosecutors also brought the same charges against former Defense Minister Kim Young-hyun and former Defense Counterintelligence Command head Yoo In-hyung.
Yoon received multiple charges, as part of the investigation conducted by the special team led by Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-suk, into his brief imposition of a state of emergency in December 2024.
Yoon remains in detention
The former president, who was formally impeached at the beginning of April, has so far been facing two parallel processes: a trial for sedition and abuse of power, deriving from his unconstitutional declaration of martial law, and another additional investigation relating to the administration before and after the declaration.
Charges in this other investigation include obstruction of official duties, violation of the Presidential Security Service Act, abuse of authority, forgery of official documents, and destruction of records.
Today’s charges are added to these charges, in a third operation related to the drone operation.
Yoon has been in detention since July 10. The former president was already detained in the same prison center between January and March, and was later released by court order, before a new arrest order was issued.
If Yun is found guilty of rebellion, he could face life imprisonment or even the death penalty, a punishment the Asian country has effectively suspended since 1997.
Mg (Effy, AP)
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