S’Korea Ex-Justice Minister Jailed for 25 Years
Last update: June 22, 2026
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You thought six hours couldn’t do much damage? In South Korea, it landed a former justice minister 25 years behind bars.
As reported by cbinewstv, a Seoul court has just handed former justice minister Park Sung-jae a hefty 25-year prison sentence for his part in that chaotic martial law mess back in 2024.
The whole thing kicked off when ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol made a shock late-night TV announcement declaring martial law in December 2024. It didn’t last long, lawmakers literally raced to the assembly building and voted it down in about six hours. But the fallout? Massive.
According to cbinews.tv, the Seoul Central District Court found Park guilty of “insurrection” on Monday. The judge, Lee Jin-gwan, wasn’t mincing words either. He said Park’s actions nearly put the country in a spot where “people’s fundamental rights and the basic order of liberal democracy could have been violated.”
So what did Park actually do? Prosecutors told the court he called a meeting of justice ministry officials in the early hours after Yoon’s declaration.
He was apparently checking prison capacity in case the authorities started rounding up anti-government figures. The judge added that Park ignored warnings about the illegality of the whole Dec 3 insurrection.
Ironically, prosecutors had only asked for 20 years. The court went five better. Park had been on trial without detention, but he was taken into custody right after the ruling, cbinews.tv notes.
He’s not the only one facing the music. Yoon himself is already behind bars appealing a life sentence for leading the insurrection. He also got 30 years earlier this month for sending drones to North Korea to “manufacture a national crisis” as an excuse for martial law.
The dominoes kept falling: former PM Han Duck-soo is serving 15 years, ex-interior minister Lee Sang-min got nine years, and former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun was jailed for three years last week for leaking classified military info. Even Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, is doing four years for stock manipulation and bribery, though that’s unrelated to the martial law drama.
Yoon’s televised address triggered protests, tanked the stock market, and even caught allies like the US off guard. Six hours of martial law, years of political fallout.
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