South Korean court sentences ex-President Yoon to 7 years in prison

Key Points:

• South Korean appeals court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to seven years in prison for resisting arrest and bypassing a legitimate Cabinet meeting before imposing martial law in December 2024, adding to his existing life sentence for rebellion charges.
• The court found Yoon guilty of obstruction of justice, falsifying documents, and deploying security forces to resist arrest, reversing a lower court's partial acquittal on abuse-of-power charges related to the martial law declaration.
• Yoon's brief martial law decree in December 2024 caused a severe political crisis, disrupting politics, diplomacy, and financial markets, which only stabilized after his rival Lee Jae Myung won an early presidential election in June 2025.
• After impeachment and suspension in late 2024, Yoon resisted arrest multiple times before being detained, released, and re-arrested; his legal team plans to appeal the latest verdict to the Supreme Court.
• The court also increased the prison sentence of Yoon's wife, Kim Keon Hee, to four years for accepting luxury gifts and involvement in stock manipulation, while prosecutors seek 30 years for Yoon in a separate trial over alleged provocations toward North Korea.