SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s former justice minister has been handed a 25-year prison sentence after a court determined he played a key part in helping ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol carry out a brief but dramatic declaration of martial law in 2024.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled that Park Sung-jae was deeply involved in Yoon’s attempt to consolidate power following the martial law declaration on December 3, 2024. According to the court, Park directed ministry officials to evaluate how many people correctional facilities could hold in preparation for detaining politicians.
The court also found that Park instructed officials to look into deploying prosecutors to Yoon’s martial law command to assist with potential investigations targeting political opponents. Those investigations would have been tied to Yoon’s unverified allegations of election fraud by liberal political figures. Park additionally ordered immigration officials to be ready to enforce travel restrictions, the court stated.
Yoon’s martial law decree came after years of political conflict with liberals who controlled the legislature. The measure lasted only about six hours before lawmakers managed to push past a military blockade Yoon had set up around the National Assembly and voted to cancel it, compelling Yoon’s Cabinet to rescind the order.
Judge Lee Jin-gwan said Park had abandoned his constitutional duty by participating in what the judge called a “self-coup” — an attempt by a sitting leader to seize unchecked power. The judge noted that Park’s contributions would have been pivotal if Yoon had succeeded in neutralizing his political rivals and blocking the legislature from overturning the martial law declaration.
Park maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings, arguing he was simply carrying out obligations required during a national emergency. His legal team did not immediately indicate whether they plan to file an appeal.
Yoon himself was impeached and removed from office on December 14, 2024, and the Constitutional Court formally ousted him in April 2025. He was arrested in July 2025, and several criminal cases against him remain active. The Seoul court previously sentenced Yoon to life in prison on rebellion charges. In a separate case, he received a 30-year sentence for allegedly ordering drone flights over Pyongyang in October 2024, which prosecutors say was intended to stoke tensions with North Korea and provide justification for declaring martial law. Yoon has appealed both convictions.
Park joins a growing list of former Cabinet members sentenced to prison for their roles in the martial law episode. Former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun received a 30-year sentence for his central role in mobilizing the military and pursuing arrests of political opponents, along with a separate 30-year term connected to the Pyongyang drone flights. Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was initially sentenced to 23 years for helping lend official legitimacy to Yoon’s decree by pushing it through a formal Cabinet approval process, though an appeals court later reduced that sentence to 15 years.
