New charges against former S Korean President Yoon for ordering drone flights over Pyongyang

The conservative leader is accused of seeking military escalation with North Korea to justify martial law, which he declared last year. Several analysts argue that progressive President Lee Jae Myung, who appointed the special prosecutor, must tread carefully to avoid accusations of political vengeance in an increasingly divided and polarised country.

Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted today on new charges of treason and abuse of power. He is already on trial for attempting to impose martial law.

This marks a further escalation in the complex legal case involving the former conservative leader, who was ousted last April and is currently in custody.

The charges were filed by a special prosecutor appointed by the current progressive president, Lee Jae Myung, who is more open to interacting with North Korea.

According to the indictment, Yoon endangered national security by ordering the military to fly spy drones over Pyongyang in October 2024.

Prosecutors argue that these missions had no defensive purpose, but were part of a plan to stoke tensions and provoke a North Korean military response, thus creating the pretext for declaring martial law.

Prosecutor Park Ji-young believes the investigation has shown that Yoon and others "conspired to create conditions that would allow the declaration of a state of emergency, increasing the risk of inter-Korean armed confrontation and harming military public interests.”

The evidence includes notes written by the former commander of military counterintelligence under the Yoon administration, proposing to “create an unstable situation or seize an arising opportunity" and target locations "that must make them (the North) lose face, so that a response is inevitable, such as Pyongyang or the major coastal city of Wonsan.”

Other evidence cited by prosecutors includes the use of words such as "drones" and "surgical strike" found in a military officer's mobile phone.

Last October, Pyongyang accused Seoul of flying drones to drop propaganda leaflets over the North Korean capital, a charge South Korean authorities initially denied, later saying that they could not confirm the claim.

In addition to Yoon, former Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun and former counterintelligence chief Yeo In-hyung were also indicted for complicity.

Yoon's defence team argues that the former president was not informed of the drone operations.

The new charges are directly linked to the events of about a year ago, when Yoon plunged the country into chaos by suddenly declaring martial law.

Although the state of emergency lasted only six hours, the decision triggered an unprecedented political crisis, the effects of which are still felt today, with increasingly marked ideological polarisation in the country.

According to some experts, Lee Jae Myung's victory in the last election was interpreted more as a rejection of the conservative bloc than as a commitment to his platform.

The two candidates opposed to Lee received a combined vote of 49.49 per cent, compared to the 49.42 per cent with which Lee was ultimately elected.

Today, the political confrontation has turned into mutual hostility, with both factions claiming to be the sole guardians of democracy.

Precisely for this reason, political analysts have stressed the need to prevent the accusations against Yoon from being perceived as an act of political vengeance, as they risk further exacerbating the climate of distrust and antagonism that today pervades South Korean society.

• south korea
• north
• political crisis
• yoon suk yeol
• lee jae myung
• drones
• surgical crisis
• martial law
• national security