Former South Korean President Sentenced to 2 Years in Political Funding Case

The sentencing marks the latest conviction in eight trials involving the former president.

A person walks in front of a TV screen broadcasting a news report on the sentencing trial of former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol's insurrection case, stemming from his short-lived declaration of martial law in December 2024, in Seoul, South Korea, on Feb. 19, 2026. Kim Soo-hyeon/Reuters

Former South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol has been sentenced to two years in prison for accepting illegal political funds, in the latest conviction for the leader ousted after his failed 2024 bid for martial law.

Seoul Central District Court on July 13 found Yoon guilty of accepting funds in the form of free opinion polls, in violation of the Political Funds Act, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

In its ruling, the court determined that Yoon had received 14 opinion polls from political broker Myung Tae-kyun for free between April 2021 and March 2022. Alongside the prison sentence, Yoon was ordered to forfeit 13.96 million won ($9,300).

According to the ruling, in exchange for the opinion polls, the ex-president promised to support former lawmaker Kim Young-sun’s nomination as a candidate for Yoon’s conservative People Power Party in the June 2022 parliamentary by-elections.

Prosecutors had earlier indicted Yoon on charges of receiving 58 opinion polls worth around 270 million won ($181,000) and sought a four-year prison term.

“The defendant’s actions sowed distrust in politics and undermined the public trust in the development of democracy,” the court said. “A punishment commensurate with the wrongdoing is inevitable.”

The conviction departs from earlier court rulings involving Yoon’s wife and former first lady, Kim Keon Hee, which determined that the couple did not profit from the polling services, as Myung had provided them to others. Special Counsel Min Joong-ki’s team is appealing that earlier ruling.

Yoon’s legal team said it would appeal the sentence, saying the ruling was difficult to understand, given the earlier acquittal of the former first lady in her case.

The court also sentenced Myung to 18 months in prison, after prosecutors had sought a three-year prison term.

Other Convictions

The sentencing marks the latest of eight trials involving the former president, who was ousted after attempting to impose martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. However, he backed down after six hours following a parliamentary vote to overturn the decree.

Yoon said at the time that he was seeking to protect the constitution because the opposition, which controlled the National Assembly, was sympathetic to communists and North Korea.

The first in a series of convictions came on Jan. 16, when Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty of mobilizing the presidential security service to prevent authorities from detaining him, fabricating official documents, and failing to follow the legal process required for declaring martial law.

He was sentenced to five years, but that was increased to seven years in April. On July 9, South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld this conviction and sentencing.

Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a hearing of his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, on Feb. 11, 2025. Lee Jin-man/Pool/AP Photo

For the martial law decree, he was convicted on Feb. 19 of the major charges of abuse of authority and orchestrating an insurrection, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The conservative politician’s third conviction came on June 12, when he was sentenced to 30 years in prison after the court found him guilty of ordering the flying of drones over Pyongyang, North Korea, in October 2024 to provoke the North Korean regime and manufacture a security crisis to use as a pretext for his declaration of martial law.

Yoon and his legal team deny all charges and are appealing the convictions.