February 19, 2026
SEOUL – Korea’s Seoul Central District Court is set to deliver its verdict Thursday as to whether former President Yoon Suk Yeol led an insurrection through his declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. The ruling will define the legal meaning of the crisis and the scale of punishment that could follow.
The court’s Criminal Division will rule at 3 p.m. on Thursday, 443 days after Yoon’s late-night decree triggered Korea’s most severe constitutional turmoil in decades. The hearing will be broadcast live.
On Wednesday, Yoon’s legal team said he will attend the sentencing, dismissing speculation of his absence, having previously missed multiple trial sessions. His lawyers added that no additional written submissions are planned.
Special counsel prosecutors have pointed to Yoon as the leader of an insurrection under Article 87 of the Criminal Act and have sought the death penalty.
Under the statute, the leader of insurrection faces death or life imprisonment. Article 87 defines insurrection as an uprising aimed at excluding state authority or disrupting the constitutional order within Korean territory.
If the court finds that Yoon led an insurrection, the sentencing range effectively narrows to those two penalties, making severe punishment unavoidable.
According to the indictment, Yoon conspired with senior security officials to declare martial law despite the absence of war or an equivalent national emergency.
Seven co-defendant senior military and police officials, including former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and former National Police Agency Commissioner General Cho Ji-ho, will also receive verdicts on their charges of participating in an insurrection.
Shortly after Yoon declared martial law, armed troops and police were deployed to seal off the National Assembly.
Soldiers smashed windows and entered the building as police cordoned off access. But lawmakers were able to force their way inside and passed a resolution demanding the withdrawal of martial law shortly after midnight. Yoon lifted the decree at 4:27 a.m.
Prosecutors argue the move was designed to neutralize the legislature and undermine core pillars of constitutional democracy. They allege plans to detain key political figures and election officials, framing the episode as an attempt to subvert constitutional order.
Yoon has rejected that characterization.
In his final court statement, he said the decree was a lawful exercise of presidential authority and a warning meant to alert the public to what he called legislative overreach by the opposition. “It was an appeal to the people to pay attention to politics and safeguard the nation,” he told the court.
He offered no apology for the turmoil that followed and argued that the swift withdrawal of troops after the parliament’s vote proved there was no intent to impose military rule.
The case has also tested the authority of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.
Yoon’s legal team has argued that the agency lacked jurisdiction to investigate insurrection and that alleged procedural flaws, including the division of detention periods between agencies, rendered the prosecution invalid.
The investigation was marked by an unusual turf battle among prosecutors, police and the CIO, raising questions about overlapping inquiries before the case was consolidated.
In a separate ruling last month, however, another panel of the same court recognized the agency’s authority to investigate abuse of power and said the underlying facts were directly linked to the insurrection allegations.
Yoon became the first sitting Korean president to be arrested after investigators executed a warrant on a second attempt. An initial effort was blocked when presidential security officials formed a human barrier to prevent entry.
He was formally detained in January 2025 and was formally removed from office by the Constitutional Court in April, when the court affirmed Yoon’s impeachment.
Lower courts have already taken a firm position in related cases. Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was sentenced to 23 years in prison, exceeding the prosecution’s request, with judges describing the events as an insurrection from above, or a self-coup.
The finding that the Dec. 3, 2024, declaration constituted insurrection functioned as a premise in assessing Han’s participation rather than a direct ruling on whether Yoon himself led the act.
Former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min received seven years after the court found he aided the effort, but played a more limited role, again treating the insurrection finding as a basis for evaluating participation.