South Korea’s ousted leader Yoon indicted for flying drones over North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s ousted conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol faces more criminal charges on Monday as prosecutors allege that he flew drones over North Korea in a deliberate bid to stoke tensions and justify his plans to declare martial law.

Yoon set off the most serious political crisis in South Korea’s recent history when he imposed martial law on Dec. 3, 2024 and sent troops to surround the National Assembly. He was later impeached and removed from office, and is in jail standing trial on charges including masterminding a rebellion.

His successor and liberal rival, President Lee Jae Myung, approved legislation that launched independent investigations into Yoon’s martial law stunt and other criminal allegations involving his wife and administration.

On Monday, Yoon and two of his top defense officials were charged with benefitting the enemy and committing abuse of power over their alleged drone flights, which happened about two months before the declaration of martial law, according to a special investigation team.

North Korea accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang, the North’s capital, to drop propaganda leaflets three times in October 2024. Yoon’s defense minister, Kim Yong Hyun, initially made a vague denial, but South Korea’s military later switched to saying it couldn’t confirm whether or not the North’s claim was true. Any public confirmation of South Korean reconnaissance activities inside North Korea is highly unusual.

Tensions rose sharply at the time, with North Korea threatening to respond with force, but neither side took any major action and tensions gradually subsided.

When Yoon announced martial law, he briefly cited “threats from North Korean communist forces,” but focused on his fights with the liberal-controlled parliament that obstructed his agenda, impeached top officials and slashed his government’s budget bill. Yoon called the National Assembly “a den of criminals” and “anti-state forces.”

On Monday, Park Ji-young, a senior investigator working for independent counsel Cho Eun-suk, told a briefing that her team still indicted Yoon, Kim and Yeo In-hyung, ex-commander of the military’s counterintelligence agency over the alleged drone flying.

She said the trio “undermined the military interests of the Republic of Korea by increasing the danger of a South-North armed conflict with the purpose of setting up an environment for declaring emergency martial law,” Park said.

There were no immediate public responses from Yoon, Kim or Yeo. But in July, Yoon’s defense team said Yoon had maintained he wasn’t informed of the drone flights.

In January, state prosecutors indicted Yoon for allegedly directing a rebellion. It’s a grave charge whose conviction only carries the sentence capital punishment or life imprisonment.

South Korea earlier accused North Korea of flying its own drones over South Korea. In late 2022, South Korea fired warning shots, scrambled fighter jets and flew surveillance drones over North Korea in response to what it called North Korea’s first drone flights across the border in five years.