Judge Yoon Sung-sik of the Seoul High Court sentenced ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol to seven years in prison on Wednesday. The court found that the former leader had bypassed legitimate cabinet meetings and falsified documents before his brief attempt to impose martial law in December 2024. Judge Yoon stated that the former president deployed security officials “like a private army” to resist his own arrest in the weeks following his impeachment. This seven-year sentence is an increase from a lower court’s five-year ruling in January. The decision serves as a powerful reminder that in a civilised society, the military belongs to the nation, not to the man in power. When a leader treats the institutions of the state as his own personal tools of coercion, he betrays the people he was sworn to serve. South Korea’s recovery from this political crisis is a sign that the rule of law can still prevail over the whims of an assertive executive. It is a victory for the quiet, daily maturity of a nation that refuses to be governed by fear.