South Korea’s former PM Han Duck-soo jailed for 23 years over insurrection: Details here

Han Duck-soo, the former prime minister of South Korea, has been sentenced to 23 years in jail over his involvement in an insurrection linked to former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed martial law declaration. The judge, Lee Jin-kwan, ordered Han to be taken into custody immediately.

The verdict delivered on Wednesday is the first judicial ruling to determine that the attempt constituted the imposition of martial law on 3 December 2024 and amounted to an insurrection. However, Han retains the right to appeal. The court indicated that he had deliberately staged the semblance of a lawful cabinet meeting to secure approval for an unconstitutional order.

Prosecutors had requested a 15-year prison term, but the judge refused to rely on sentencing precedents from past military coups, calling the episode a “self-coup” carried out by an elected leadership and posing a distinct threat to democratic institutions, according to a report in the Guardian.

Lee said Han, in his capacity as prime minister, was constitutionally obliged to block the insurrection but instead “opted to take part” in it. The court also cited a lack of genuine remorse, noting that Han continued to conceal evidence and provide false testimony during the proceedings.

Backdated martial law document

The most shocking evidence came from a phone call of 8 December in which Han found himself directing a presidential aide to destroy a backdated martial law document. He said, “Let’s make it as if my signature never existed.” The court also figured out that 76-year-old Han was quite informed about the martial law plan hours before Yoon’s televised announcement at 10.28 pm on 3 December.

He was also found to have ensured the meeting met the minimum quorum while blocking any substantive discussion. The court said Han fabricated documents, destroyed presidential records and committed perjury during former president Yoon’s impeachment proceedings.

Prosecutors sought a 15-year prison term, arguing that Han carried singular responsibility as the only official constitutionally able to stop the decree, either by refusing to countersign it or by declining to convene a cabinet meeting.

A career diplomat, Han served under five presidents from both conservative and progressive governments. Yoon appointed him prime minister in May 2022, making him the longest-serving premier under a single president in South Korea’s democratic era.

Throughout the trial, he maintained that he privately opposed the declaration of martial law and was in psychological shock at the time. “I never supported it or tried to help it,” he told the court in November. Unlike Yoon and other co-defendants, Han remained free throughout his trial after a judge rejected his arrest warrant in August, citing “room for legal dispute” over his culpability.

The judgment came five days after another court sentenced Yoon to five years in prison for obstructing his own arrest. A verdict in Yoon’s insurrection case is due on February 19, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty.