Verdict in ex-Prime Minister Han's case to be broadcast live

A court has decided to broadcast live on television the first-instance verdict in former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo’s trial on charges including aiding an insurrection ringleader.

Former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo arrives for his first-instance sentencing hearing at the Seoul Central District Court on Nov. 26, 2025. [YONHAP]

A court has decided to broadcast live on television the first-instance verdict in former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo’s trial on charges including aiding an insurrection ringleader.

The Seoul Central District Court said Monday it approved broadcasters’ requests to air the first-instance sentencing, scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday. Footage recorded with court-owned equipment will be transmitted to broadcasters in real time, though there may be a slight delay due to technical issues.

The broadcast follows a revision to the special counsel law on insurrection. Under the law, first-instance trials in cases indicted by the special counsel — or cases for which the special counsel is responsible for maintaining the prosecution — are to be broadcast in principle. A first-instance verdict in the case over former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s alleged obstruction of his arrest was also aired live under the same procedure.

Han is accused of aiding the illegal declaration of emergency martial law by failing, as vice chair of the Cabinet, to fulfill his duty to check and restrain arbitrary exercises of presidential authority.

He is also accused of signing a falsified martial law proclamation on Dec. 5, 2024 — allegedly drafted by former presidential secretary Kang Eui-gu to cover up procedural defects after the martial law declaration — along with former President Yoon and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun — and of ordering the document destroyed.

In addition, Han is charged with perjury for testifying as a witness at the Constitutional Court’s impeachment trial of Yoon on Feb. 20, 2025, to the effect that he was unaware of the martial law proclamation.

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]

At the final hearing on Dec. 26, the special counsel team requested a 15-year prison term for Han.

“The defendant, as the No. 2 figure in the executive branch and the prime minister, was effectively the only person who could have prevented the insurrection,” the team said, adding that he “betrayed his duty to serve the entire public and took part in the insurrection through his actions before and after the declaration of martial law.”

Calling the case “an act of terror against Korea’s democracy,” the special counsel team said, “The state and the entire public are victims,” and added that “severe punishment is necessary so that this kind of tragic history is never repeated.”

“The moment the president said that night that he would declare emergency martial law, I was hit with an indescribable shock,” Han said in his final statement. “It was something I could never agree to, and I tried to change his mind somehow, but it was beyond my power.”

“Although I failed to stop the emergency martial law, I never once intended to support it or help it,” Han said. “This is the most honest final confession I can offer today before this historic court.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY BAE JAE-SUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]