South Korea’s ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol is accused of flying drones over rival North Korea in a deliberate attempt to stoke tensions and justify his plan to declare martial law.
Mr Yoon and two of his defence aids were indicted by prosecutors on Monday on charges of benefitting the enemy and abusing power with the alleged drone flight operations.
The former conservative leader heightened tensions with the neighbouring country and undermined national security through this manufactured operation, they said.
Mr Yoon became his country’s first incumbent president to be arrested after he was charged with insurrection for briefly imposing martial law last year and thrusting the country into political turmoil.
Mr Yoon, 64, was arrested in January and taken to the Corruption Investigation Office for questioning.
He was also impeached by the National Assembly and suspended from office, a decision later upheld by the constitutional court.
Insurrection is one of the rare offences for which South Korean presidents do not have immunity. The offence carries severe penalties that may include life imprisonment, and even the death penalty.
Mr Yoon directed the drone flights to fabricate a pretext for declaring martial law on 3 December 2024, special prosecutor Cho Eun Suk’s team said.
He was assisted in this scheme by then defence minister Kim Yong Hyun and military counterintelligence commander Yeo In Hyung, they alleged.
A memo found on Mr Yeo’s phone communicated the plan among the three officials in the run-up to the imposition of martial law.
“We must create or seize instability”, “the enemy must act first”, “the enemy is in a very defensive position”, the memo read, suggesting that the three leaders were working to engineer a military standoff, The Korea Herald reported.
Mr Yeo, a close associate of Mr Yoon, also listed what he described as targets for the drones that the rival nation “would surely react to” such as its capital Pyongyang, the residence of leader Kim Jong Un, and two nuclear facilities.
Since the drones crashed during the operation and exposed classified operational data, the missions compromised the country’s defence interests, the prosecutors charged.
Tensions between the two Koreas surged in October 2024 after Pyongyang accused Seoul of flying drones over the capital to drop propaganda leaflets.
Mr Yoon’s defence minister initially issued a vague denial but South Korea's military later switched to saying they couldn’t confirm whether or not Pyongyang’s claim was true. Any public confirmation of South Korean reconnaissance activities inside North Korea is highly unusual.
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