SOUTH Korea’s Supreme Court upheld a seven-year prison sentence today for former President Yoon Suk Yeol in the first case to reach the country’s highest court related to his brief imposition of martial law in 2024.

The court upheld an April ruling by the Seoul High Court that found Mr Yoon guilty of infringing on cabinet members’ right to deliberate before he declared martial law, falsifying the official proclamation to cover up the lapse before later destroying the document, and deploying presidential security forces to illegally resist law enforcement efforts to arrest him weeks after his impeachment.

Martial law lasted only hours before politicians broke through a blockade of heavily armed soldiers and police at Seoul’s national assembly and voted to repeal it, forcing Mr Yoon’s cabinet to lift the measure.

The former president remains in detention and did not attend the ruling, which is final. He is still standing trial in other cases, and he has appealed the life sentence he received for the most serious conviction against him, the charge of rebellion.

In a statement, Mr Yoon’s legal team expressed “deep regret” over the Supreme Court’s ruling, saying the justices concluded a significant case without sufficient review.

The ruling aligned with the views of the Constitutional Court, which, in removing Mr Yoon from office in April 2025, found that his martial law decree lacked legal grounds and failed to follow required procedures.

Mr Yoon’s martial law declaration plunged South Korea into a political crisis, paralysing politics and high-level diplomacy while rattling financial markets. The turmoil eased only after his liberal rival, Lee Jae Myung, won an early presidential election in June 2025.