MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A South Korean court has convicted the country's former president of insurrection. Yoon Suk Yeol has been sentenced to life in prison. The charges relate to his declaration of martial law in late 2024. NPR's Anthony Kuhn is here to discuss the ruling he tells us is deeply dividing the country. Good morning, Anthony.
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Hi, Michel.
MARTIN: So first, start with the verdict.
KUHN: Well, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that Yoon sent troops to seize control of parliament on the night of December 3, 2024, which the court said was an attempt to subvert the constitution. The court said that many people were implicated in this crime, and it imposed a great social cost on South Korea and Yoon showed no remorse for his actions. And that's because Yoon maintained all along that he was simply alerting people to the fact that opposition politicians were trying to paralyze the government. Prosecutors had asked for the death penalty for Yoon, but the court said that Yoon didn't really plan martial law very meticulously. The troops did not resort to violence, and Yoon was 65 years old. Seven other officials were sentenced with Yoon for their role in the insurrection, and Yoon now has one week to appeal the verdict.
MARTIN: OK. So tell us more about the public reaction. You were telling us that this has really divided the country.
KUHN: Yeah. Street protests have been a defining feature of this whole crisis and today was no exception. There were opposing camps of protesters for and against Yoon facing off in the streets near the courthouse, and with every twist and turn of the verdict, people were cheering and cursing in response. Yoon's legal team said that the court's verdict ignored the evidence. By contrast, the current president, Lee Jae Myung, hailed South Korean citizens for thwarting Yoon's plot. Now, some Yoon opponents were not happy. They feel he should have gotten the death penalty. But South Korea hasn't executed anyone in nearly three decades, so even a death sentence would probably have been commuted to life in prison anyway.
MARTIN: So Yoon was convicted of insurrection, which is a rebellion against a government. Could you just sort of say more about how can a president rebel against his own government?
KUHN: Well, in Yoon's case, he rebelled against a part of the government, which the Constitution set up to check his powers. And an earlier - a recent court verdict against Yoon's ex-prime minister said that what Yoon did was a self-coup. In other words, a coup by a leader who was democratically elected in order to strengthen his grip on power. And Yoon's self-coup took aim at several institutions that could check his power, including parliament, the media and election authorities.
MARTIN: Anthony, before I let you go, are there any lessons here for other democracies?
KUHN: Well, you know, South Korea is seen in Asia as a fairly mature democracy, even though it's not - you know, it's only decades old, but this is a reminder that even it is not immune to backsliding. Another is that when these self-coups succeed, it's often because of the use or the threat of military force. In Yoon's case, his bid failed because troops refused to carry out their orders. And finally, one lesson that some people have drawn from this is the importance of political participation and civil society. And the idea when democratic institutions fail to prevent a power grab, the citizenry is the last line of defense, and in South Korea's case, that last line held.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Anthony Kuhn. Anthony, thank you.
KUHN: You're welcome, Michel.
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