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Court set to deliver verdict on ex-prime minister's insurrection charges

Published: 21 Jan. 2026, 11:01 Updated: 21 Jan. 2026, 13:33

Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo leaves the Seoul Central District Court on Nov. 26, 2025, after the conclusion of his sentencing hearing. [KANG JUNG-HYUN]

A court is set to deliver a verdict on Wednesday on charges that former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo played a key role in an insurrection by abetting former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed imposition of martial law.

Han will be the first member of Yoon's Cabinet to be sentenced over the Dec. 3, 2024, emergency order, which was brought to an end after six hours by the National Assembly's vote to lift the decree.

The Seoul Central District Court is scheduled to hold the sentencing hearing at 2 p.m. and has allowed it to be televised live.

Han has been charged with abetting the ringleader of an insurrection, playing a key role in an insurrection and perjury, all in connection with the martial law imposition.

In addition to attending a Cabinet meeting shortly before Yoon declared martial law, he allegedly signed a revised proclamation that was drafted later to enhance its legitimacy, discarded it and lied under oath before the Constitutional Court.

Special counsel team Cho Eun-suk's team has sought a 15-year prison term for Han, accusing him of taking part in a series of acts before and after the declaration of martial law despite his responsibility as the No. 2 government official to stop the president's arbitrary use of power.

CCTV footage from inside the presidential office, taken before and after the Dec. 3, 2024, martial law declaration, is shown during a hearing on Oct. 13, 2025, for former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, with the footage capturing former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min smiling while speaking with Han before exiting the presidential office [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The former prime minister has denied the allegations, saying he had no prior knowledge of the martial law plans aside from the declaration itself and never agreed with it or helped it.

The ruling will be key in determining whether the martial law declaration constituted an insurrection.

Yoon's own trial on charges of leading an insurrection through the martial law decree concluded last week, with the special counsel team demanding the death penalty.

The verdict for the case is set to be announced Feb. 19.

Under the Constitution, an insurrection is defined as an act aimed at removing state authority from part or all of the country or the staging of a riot with the purpose of subverting the Constitution.

Yonhap