Asia

Showdown in South Korea after failed coup d'état

Seoul court sentences former premier Han Duck-soo to 23 years for failed coup

by Marco Masciaga

21 January 2026

L'ex primo ministro sudcoreano Han Duck-soo, al centro, arriva al tribunale distrettuale centrale di Seul per la sua prima udienza di condanna nel caso di insurrezione, a Seul mercoledì 21 gennaio 2026. (Chung Sung-Jun/Pool Photo via AP) Associated Press/ LaPresse Solo Italia e Spagna

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

From our correspondent

NEW DELHI - In a decision that leaves little doubt as to the climate of reckoning in the country, a Seoul court yesterday sentenced former South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to 23 years in prison for his role in the sensational failed self-coup staged by former President Yoon Suk Yeol in December 2023. The prosecution had asked for 15.

According to Magistrate Lee Jin-kwan, despite the fact that his role as premier gave him specific responsibilities, 76-year-old Han was guilty of taking part in an insurrection, creating the conditions for 'the population to return to living under a dictatorship for a long time'. Because of the choices Han made, the magistrate said, 'South Korea ran the risk of returning to a dark past in which the liberal-democratic order and people's basic rights were violated'.

Han was found guilty of the serious crime of insurrection, perjury - the only charge for which he had admitted responsibility - and falsifying an official document. In reading the sentence, the judge said Han played a key role in making it appear that the decision to impose martial law was made in the Council of Ministers and likened the plan to 'an insurrection from above'. Not only that. Han was also found guilty of discussing with other leading government figures measures to prevent the functioning of institutions crucial to the country's democratic life such as parliament. It was precisely the failure of this last part of the subversive plan that led to the failure of the coup.

On the night of 3 December 2023, immediately after the televised announcement of the imposition of martial law and despite the military in the streets, a handful of parliamentarians managed to reach the parliament area, climb over the fences and gather to vote down President Yoon's attempted coup d'état, averting a return to a not-so-distant past of military regimes and repression of dissent and civil liberties.

At first, Han's position did not seem so serious. So much so that, after Yoon's impeachment, he also assumed the post of interim president as prime minister, being hailed as an institutional figure who had served in five governments, even of different political persuasions, as well as the best possible card in the dreaded trade negotiations with the United States, because of his past as ambassador in Washington. It was a short-lived idyll. In the convulsive months that followed, Han was in turn removed by a parliamentary vote, then reinstated by the Constitutional Court only to resign less than two months later, with the soon-to-be-vanished goal of running for the country's presidency.

Han is the first member of the government to be convicted for the events of December two years ago. The fact that the sentence imposed is much heavier than that demanded by the prosecution is a worrying sign, to say the least, for the real protagonist of that dramatic night. As many as eight proceedings are pending against former President Yoon, including one for insurrection, for which the special prosecutor investigating the failed coup d'état has requested - although it has been decades since the last execution - his death sentence. A few days ago, a judge sentenced Yoon to five years in prison after finding him guilty of attempting to evade arrest.

Marco MasciagaCorrispondente da New Delhi
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Luogo: New Delhi
Lingue parlate: Italiano, inglese
Argomenti: Asia del Sud
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