The Supreme Court hands Yoon his first final conviction: seven years, 583 days after martial law

The Supreme Court hands Yoon his first final conviction: seven years, 583 days after martial law

The Supreme Court upheld a 7-year prison sentence for former President Yoon Suk-yeol on July 9, his first final conviction in any of his eight pending trials, 583 days after he declared martial law.

Why this matters. This is the first final Supreme Court conviction of a former Korean president since 1997. One case is now settled; seven trials remain open. The legal arc that began December 3, 2024 is nowhere near its end, and the ruling sets the precedent frame for every case still to come.

What changed. The 3rd Division, presiding Justice Lee Sook-yeon, upheld the Seoul High Court's April sentence of 7 years for special obstruction of official duty and abuse of authority, tied to Yoon's resistance against the Corruption Investigation Office's arrest attempt. The court found 9 of 10 charged acts proven: infringing Cabinet members' deliberation rights before declaring martial law, falsifying and then destroying the official martial-law proclamation, and directing presidential security forces to block the arrest, per Seoul Shinmun, Financial News, Korea JoongAng Daily, and The Washington Post.

The last time. The last final Supreme Court ruling holding a former Korean president criminally responsible for seizing state power was April 17, 1997, when the full bench upheld life imprisonment for Chun Doo-hwan (commuted from a death sentence) and 17 years for Roh Tae-woo, for the 1979 military mutiny and the 1980 Gwangju crackdown, per the Korea Herald retrospective. Both men received a special pardon on December 22, 1997, days after Kim Dae-jung won the December 18 presidential election.

What's next. Yoon's legal team said it "deeply regrets" the ruling and plans to pursue a "trial petition" (재판소원) arguing the court concluded the case without sufficient deliberation, per MBC. A 재판소원 is a contested and rarely used constitutional route; the announcement is reported without assessing its prospects. Seven trials remain open, per Seoul Shinmun. The drone-infiltration case, where a lower court sentenced him to 30 years, holds its first pre-trial preparatory hearing (공판준비기일) at the appellate level on July 15.

Korea This Week

The KOSPI's worst day since June, then the fastest rebound of the year as SK hynix rings the Nasdaq bell

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 5.35% on July 8, its worst single day since June, then rebounded to 7,475.94 by July 10 as SK hynix completed a landmark Nasdaq listing.

What changed. The index lost 409.52 points to close at 7,246.79 on July 8, its third straight losing session, per KED Global and Top Star News. Two forces hit at once: US Central Command struck more than 80 targets in Iran after Iranian forces attacked three commercial tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, through which Korea routes roughly 70% of its crude oil imports; and Meta's plan to resell spare AI data-center computing capacity revived fears that infrastructure spending has outrun demand. Semiconductor large-caps led the fall, and the KOSDAQ closed below 800 at 785.00. The index rebounded 0.62% on July 9 and 2.52% on July 10, lifted by SK hynix's Nasdaq ADR debut (ticker SKHY), where institutional demand reportedly reached roughly 7 times the offered shares, per Etnews and Kyunghyang Shinmun.

The numbers.

• July 8 close: 7,246.79, down 409.52 points (-5.35%)
• Week close: 7,475.94 (+2.52% on July 10 alone)
• ADR proceeds will fund SK hynix's expanded investment in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), per Hankyung and Etnews

Worth knowing. Samsung reported preliminary Q2 operating profit of 89.4 trillion won, up 56.2% quarter-on-quarter, per Samsung Newsroom (preliminary and unaudited). Its stock fell and rebounded in the same week. AI demand and AI-glut fear are running simultaneously.

The won starts trading 24 hours a day

Korea's won-dollar market moved to near-continuous 24-hour trading on July 6, running from Monday 6am through Saturday 6am for the first time.

What changed. The market previously ran from 9am to 2am the following day. The Bank of Korea (한국은행) and Ministry of Economy and Finance framed the expansion as "won internationalization," designed to capture offshore trading activity that previously built up outside market hours and hit the domestic market as a single volatility spike at the open. The rate began the new regime at 1,527.6 won per dollar, per Herald Corp and Money Today.

What this means for you. The rate you see at breakfast can now have moved overnight on offshore flows. Anyone timing a remittance home should check the live rate at the moment of transfer, not the previous day's close.

Homeplus's "fateful two weeks": 33.3 billion won in unpaid June wages confirmed, government relief rolls out

The government confirmed 33.3 billion won in unpaid June wages at Homeplus and launched a worker relief package, as the company faces a July 17 appeal deadline.

What changed. Following the Seoul Bankruptcy Court's July 3 dismissal of Homeplus's rehabilitation case, a government task force confirmed the wage arrears and announced relief, per Financial News. Stores have continued to deteriorate: empty shelves, shuttered food courts, and outsourced staff departing, per Financial News and Herald Corp.

The numbers.

• 33.3 billion won in confirmed unpaid June wages
• Up to 21 million won per worker in wage-arrears advances
• Livelihood loans at 1.5% annual interest, up to 10 million won per worker
• Sources: Asia Business Daily, SBS English

What's next. The 14-day appeal window from the July 3 dismissal runs to July 17, and funds effectively need to be in place by July 16, ahead of the July 17 Constitution Day holiday, per Herald Corp. An appeal is viable only if Homeplus secures roughly 200 billion won in emergency operating funds. Neither MBK Partners nor lead creditor Meritz has committed that sum as of this week, per Financial News.

The fake-news law is now in force, and the backlash arrived with it

Korea's revised Information and Communications Network Act (정보통신망법) took effect July 7, and university communities and online forums responded with censorship warnings and a viral "this content has been censored" joke.

What changed. The law introduces punitive damages up to five times actual losses and fines up to 1 billion won for deliberate spreaders of false or manipulated information (허위조작정보) with 100,000 or more subscribers or average views, plus self-regulation duties for platforms above 1 million daily active users. Student communities at Seoul National University, Korea University, and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies posted warnings invoking China and "1984." A satirical tag spreading on DC Inside was in some cases mistaken for real deletions, per Munhwa Ilbo and Newsis.

One complication. The Broadcasting and Media Communications Review Committee (방송미디어통신심의위원회) maintains the law does not enable prior restriction of content and is not censorship. What the law does in practice will depend on how enforcement unfolds, per Careyou News.

Monsoon downpours across Chungcheong and Jeolla: one missing, hundreds evacuated

Concentrated monsoon (장마) rain across Chungcheong and Jeolla left one man missing, forced 758 people to evacuate, and damaged more than 450 facilities this week.

The numbers.

• Cheonan recorded 267.1mm of cumulative rainfall
• A man in his 70s swept away by a stream in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang, remained missing as of July 9
• 508 households (758 people) evacuated across 7 provinces and 25 cities and counties; 65 still unable to return home
• 453 facility-damage cases; 156 trails across 8 national parks closed
• Sources: Financial News, Financial News, Newspim

Worth knowing. It is monsoon season. Anyone planning outdoor trips in Chungcheong, Jeolla, or the affected national parks should check trail and road closures before heading out.

Watch This Week

• July 14 (Tuesday). The Minimum Wage Commission's (최저임금위원회) 14th session is scheduled to decide the 2027 minimum wage. As of July 9, the gap between labor's proposal (11,220 won per hour) and management's counter (10,530 won per hour) had narrowed to 690 won, per News1 and Segye Ilbo. Directly relevant to anyone paid at or near minimum wage, including many E-9, H-2, and student part-time workers. The Ministry of Employment and Labor must formally announce the 2027 rate by August 5.

• July 15 (Wednesday). The Seoul High Court holds the first pre-trial preparatory hearing (공판준비기일) in the appeal of the drone-infiltration case against former President Yoon Suk-yeol, where a lower court sentenced him to 30 years, per Seoul Shinmun, MBC, and Korea Times.

• July 16 (Thursday). The Bank of Korea's Monetary Policy Committee meets. A 25-basis-point hike to 2.75% is widely expected, which would be Korea's first rate increase in roughly three and a half years, per g-enews and Etoday. Anyone with a variable-rate mortgage or a large won deposit decision should watch this one.

Korea Decoded

The Honam-Yeongnam divide (호남-영남): why Korea's two regions vote, work, and remember differently

Korea's southwest, Honam (호남), and southeast, Yeongnam (영남), read the same national investment decision through entirely different inherited experiences, and that divide is running live right now.

Worth knowing. The divide is not an ancient feud: it was structured in the 1960s, when Park Chung-hee's government concentrated heavy industry along the Gyeongbu (경부) axis linking Seoul to the southeast, leaving Honam comparatively undeveloped. The 1971 presidential election, when Park narrowly defeated Kim Dae-jung, locked in the political dimension. The 1980 Gwangju crackdown (5·18) sealed the memory dimension. The result is roughly half a century of capital and infrastructure accumulating along one spine of the country. When the government this year steered roughly 800 trillion won in chip-fab investment toward Gwangju and South Jeolla, it read as long-overdue correction in Honam and as political favoritism in Yeongnam, not because either reading is wrong about the facts, but because both are reading the same policy through a different inheritance. See Seoulstart's Honam-Yeongnam divide guide for the full structural breakdown.

Festivals worth checking out

• July 24 to August 9 (book now). Boryeong Mud Festival: Korea's largest summer festival at Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, South Chungcheong. Opening day is under two weeks out, and guesthouses near the beach book out well in advance. This is the last comfortable window to sort accommodation and KTX or bus logistics to Daecheon.

• July 31 to August 2. Incheon Pentaport Music Festival: a ticketed outdoor music festival in Songdo, Incheon, with direct access from the Seoul metro. Ticket tiers sell through before the weekend, and three weeks out is the right time to check availability.

See the full festivals calendar for what's running across the country.

Good Reads

• The Korea Herald. "From Chun Doo-hwan to Yoon Suk Yeol: How a 1979 coup still defines insurrection law." A legal-history backgrounder written while Yoon's trials were still in progress: how the 1979 to 1997 precedents built Korea's modern insurrection-law framework. The context that makes this week's first final ruling legible. (link) (metered)

• Seoulstart. Unpaid Wage Guarantee Payment (대지급금) for Foreign Workers in Korea. In a week when the government confirmed 33.3 billion won in unpaid wages at one employer: this is the system that pays workers when an employer cannot. Two routes including the insolvency route (도산대지급금), filing deadlines that expire quickly, and confirmation that foreign workers can file. The guide to read before you need it.

• Star News (via Nate Sports). "2026 KBO All-Star Game: the last ever hosted at the current Jamsil Stadium." Jamsil opened in 1982 and retires after this season under the theme "RE:잠실: ALL STARS, ALL MEMORIES." Forty-four years of baseball history in one farewell weekend. A lovely read even if you have never watched an inning. (link) (Korean)

• NK PRO. "North Korea reviews first-half economy as coal sector takes center stage." North Korea is absent from this week's news block; this read on Pyongyang's semiannual economy review, and why coal is carrying it, keeps the northern file current. (link) (subscriber)

• CSIS. "The Impact of the Iran Conflict on South Korea: By the Numbers." The structural exposure behind this week's market crash: roughly 70% of Korea's crude oil transits the Strait of Hormuz, and strategic reserves cover only around 26 days after emergency releases. Maps the logistics vulnerability that makes this episodic crisis a structural one. (link)

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New on Seoulstart this week

• The jobs board got a full revamp: sign-in accounts, saved jobs, job alerts, and a My Jobs page, so you can track applications in one place. Remote AI jobs also joined the top navigation.
• What to Do When Your Korean Visa Application Is Denied: refusal codes, reapplication timing, and the appeal routes available to you, now live in all five language editions.
• The visa hub now covers the full 13-visa-code set, one dedicated page per code from D-2 to F-6.

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That's Seoulstart Korea Weekly for this week. Thursday's rate decision and Tuesday's minimum wage vote both land in the same week: if either touches you directly, a variable-rate mortgage, an hourly wage, or a deposit you're about to move, reply and tell me which. We'll follow the one readers actually feel. See you next week.