Seoul (South Korea)

A South Korean court sentenced the country's former prime minister Han Duck-soo for abetting then-President Yoon Suk Yeol's brief imposition of martial law in December 2024, state media has reported.

The ruling was delivered on January 21 by the Seoul Central District Court in a nationally televised verdict, Yonhap reported, adding that the presiding judge ordered Han to be placed in custody, citing concerns he could destroy evidence.

Presiding Judge Lee Jin-kwan defined Yoon's imposition of martial law as an act of insurrection that "could have pushed South Korea back into dictatorship" and convicted Han of "playing a key role in an insurrection."

"The defendant had a duty as a prime minister, indirectly given democratic legitimacy and the responsibility for it to follow the Constitution and laws and make every effort to realize and defend the Constitution," the judge said during the sentencing hearing as cited by State media.

"Even so, he neglected this duty and responsibility until the end, thinking the December 3 insurrection might succeed, and chose to take part as a member," he added.

Han, who was appointed by Yoon, served as one of the three caretaker leaders during the martial law crisis, which led to Yoon's impeachment and eventually his removal from office.

Han is the first member of Yoon's Cabinet to be sentenced over the martial law decree, which was lifted after six hours following a vote by the National Assembly, Yonhap reported.

The former prime minister has denied the allegations, saying he had no prior knowledge of the martial law plans aside from the declaration itself and never agreed with it or helped it.

After the ruling, 76-year-old Han was transferred to the Seoul Detention Centre in Uiwang, south of Seoul, where ex-President Yoon has also been detained since last July.

Last Friday, Yoon received a five-year prison term at the Seoul court for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation and denying some Cabinet members their rights to deliberate on his martial law decree, CNN reported.

The Seoul Central District Court is to rule on Yoon's rebellion charges on February 19.

The prosecution's charges against him included abetting the ringleader of an insurrection, playing a key role in an insurrection and committing perjury.

A CNN report explained that Han became acting president after Yoon was impeached by the opposition-controlled National Assembly later in December 2024. However, he was also quickly impeached following wrangling with opposition lawmakers over his refusal to fill vacant seats at the Constitutional Court, which was deliberating whether to formally throw Yoon out of office.

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The Constitutional Court later reinstated Han as acting president. But after the court formally dismissed Yoon as president in early April 2025, Han resigned to run for the presidency in June's 2025 snap election. He eventually withdrew from the race after failing to win the main conservative party's nomination.

On the night of December 3, 2024, Yoon declared martial law in South Korea, banning all political activities and deploying troops to the National Assembly, claiming the legislature had "paralysed" his administration.