Former South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has been sentenced to 23 years in prison on Wednesday for his involvement in the failed martial law decree issued by ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol in December 2024. The ruling marks the first judicial determination that the attempted power grab constituted an insurrection, and Han was immediately taken into custody. He retains the right to appeal.
Judge Lee Jin-kwan cited Han's active role in legitimizing the unconstitutional decree, including staging a cabinet meeting to rubber-stamp the martial law plan and conspiring to destroy evidence. CCTV footage showed Han nodding along as Yoon outlined the decree hours before its public announcement. The court highlighted that Han, as prime minister, had a constitutional duty to block the plan but "chose to join" it instead.
Prosecutors had requested a 15-year sentence, arguing Han bore unique responsibility as the sole official positioned to halt the decree. The judge, referencing 1997 insurrection precedents, imposed a harsher penalty, calling the incident a "self-coup" by elected powers that posed grave dangers to democracy. The court also convicted Han of falsifying documents, destroying presidential records, and perjury during impeachment proceedings.
Han, 76, a career diplomat who served under five presidents, maintained throughout the trial that he privately opposed martial law and was in shock during the events. "I never supported it or tried to help it," he told the court last November. Despite his defense, the ruling emphasized a lack of remorse, citing continued concealment of evidence and misleading testimony.
The verdict follows a separate court sentencing Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison for obstructing his own arrest. Yoon's trial for the insurrection itself is set for Feb. 19, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty. The rulings underscore South Korea's ongoing reckoning with one of the gravest challenges to its democratic institutions in recent decades.