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Koreans hold up signs at a rally held near the Seoul Central District Court on Feb. 19, 2026, calling on the court to convict Yoon and others in their trials on insurrection charges. (Yonhap)

A Korean court has sentenced Roh Sang-won, the former chief of the Defense Intelligence Command, to 18 years in prison for his role in the 2024 insurrection.

Cho Ji-ho, the former commissioner general of the National Police Agency, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Kim Bong-sik, the former Seoul police chief, to 10 years in prison for their roles in the abortive self-coup. 

The verdicts and sentences were delivered by the Seoul Central District Court on Thursday. Roh was charged with engaging in essential activities in an insurrection.

Mok Hyun-tae, the former head of the National Assembly Police Guards, was given a three-year prison sentence.

But the court acquitted Col. Kim Yong-gun, the former provost marshal for the Third Army, and Yoon Seung-yeong, a former investigation coordinator at the police-run National Office of Investigation.

Judge Jee Kui-youn, who presided over the case, said that Roh had “prepared for the martial law declaration on the assumption that the resulting situation would last for some time.”

“When a resolution demanding that martial law be lifted was passed [by the National Assembly] faster than expected, the defendant called [then Defense Minister] Kim Yong-hyun to discuss how to respond. We conclude that the defendant engaged in these violent acts with the shared objective of overthrowing the constitutional order,” the court said.

Roh Sang-won, the former chief of the Defense Intelligence Command. 

The court said that while Cho Ji-ho and Kim Bong-sik “were neither framers of the plan nor involved in it from the beginning, there is every reason to believe they shared, along with Yoon Suk-yeol and Kim Yong-hyun, the desire to barricade and paralyze the National Assembly to prevent it from carrying out its functions.”

The court also found that Mok ought to have known his actions could hinder or paralyze the activity of the National Assembly.

But the court said there was “not sufficient evidence” to establish Kim Yong-gun or Yoon Seung-yeong’s involvement in the criminal acts.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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