A Seoul court on Friday sentenced former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun to a three-year prison term for leaking military secrets to a civilian in the lead-up to former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed martial law bid in December 2024. The Seoul Central District Court found Kim guilty on charges of conspiring with others to hand over a list of more than 40 military intelligence personnel to Noh Sang-won, a retired general and former head of the Defense Intelligence Command (DIC), between October and November of 2024. The court recognized special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s argument Kim and Noh had planned to use the list, which included information of covert intelligence agents, to form a special investigation unit under martial law that would probe alleged election-rigging. “The defendant used the military command system to play a decisive role in allowing former commander Noh, a civilian, to get access to personal information of DIC agents,” the court said. “It led to the grave result of an unconstitutional and illegal emergency martial law.” The ruling fell short of the special counsel team’
Ex-defense minister sentenced to 3 years in prison for leaking military secrets
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