According to RT, on January 13, according to Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean prosecutors have requested the death penalty for former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is suspected of inciting a coup.
On January 13, 2026, the South Korean prosecutors formally submitted a sentencing recommendation to the court, requesting the death penalty for former President Yoon Suk-yeol on the charge of leading a coup. This rare request stems from his emergency martial law order issued on December 2024 being classified as "organized armed disruption of the constitutional order."
According to CCTV Network,
During the closing court session on January 13, the South Korean prosecutors requested the court to sentence Yoon Suk-yeol to death on the grounds of leading a coup. The core of the accusation is that he unilaterally declared a national emergency martial law on December 3, 2024, deployed military and police to block the National Assembly, attempted to detain officials including the Speaker of the National Assembly and the leader of the opposition party, and used drones to provoke North Korea to create an excuse for war. The prosecutors emphasized that this act severely disrupted the constitutional order of South Korea and showed no remorse.
Related sources analyze that the probability of executing the death penalty is low: since 1997, South Korea has not executed any death sentences, which is in fact a de facto abolition of the death penalty. Historical precedents (such as the case of Chun Doo-hwan) show that even if the first trial sentences someone to death, the second trial may change it to life imprisonment.
Life imprisonment is more likely: the legal community generally believes that due to the strength of the evidence and the previous unanimous ruling by the Constitutional Court that the martial law order was unconstitutional, life imprisonment may be the actual outcome. The current president, Lee Jae-yong, has publicly opposed clemency for those convicted of coup-related crimes and has pushed for legislation to prohibit such clemency.
The subsequent development of the case will depend on whether the court recognizes the classification of "using force to disrupt the constitutional order." Its outcome not only concerns the fate of an individual but may also reshape the paradigm of power supervision in South Korea's democratic system.
His wife, Kim Geun-hye, has been sentenced to 15 years for 16 charges including stock price manipulation and bribery, possibly becoming the first couple of former presidents to be imprisoned together.
It's not that there's no punishment, but the time hasn't come yet. The self-written and self-performed drama of Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife finally reaches its curtain call.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1854209161699340/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.