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Han Duck-soo, former prime minister charged with aiding an attempted insurrection, leaves the Seoul Central District Court on Nov. 26 after the final hearing in his first-instance trial. / Yonhap News

The special counsel team investigating the Dec. 3 martial law incident issued its first sentencing recommendation on Nov. 26, seeking a 15-year prison term for former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on charges including aiding an attempted insurrection. The first-instance ruling is scheduled for Jan. 21 next year, and the heavy term sought solely for aiding the plot is seen as setting an initial benchmark for other key defendants, including former President Yoon Suk-yeol.

At the sentencing hearing held by the 33rd Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court, presided over by Judge Lee Jin-kwan, the special counsel argued that Han had joined the insurrection despite being “virtually the only person” who could have stopped it. They asserted that as a public servant in service to the entire public, Han had not only failed to prevent the illegal declaration of martial law but had facilitated it through a series of actions before and after its proclamation.

Calling the attempted insurrection “an act of terror against Korean democracy,” the special counsel insisted that Han must be punished severely so that “such tragic history is never repeated in the Republic of Korea.”

Han was indicted on Aug. 29 on charges that he failed in his duty, as prime minister and the country’s second-highest executive official, to check the president’s arbitrary abuse of power. Instead of acting to stop the unlawful imposition of martial law, he is accused of enabling it.

The court will deliver its first-instance ruling on Jan. 21. If the schedule holds, Han will be the first among the indicted cabinet members to receive a verdict on insurrection-related charges. The judgment is expected to serve as the initial legal reference point for determining whether the Dec. 3 martial law incident constitutes an act of insurrection under Korean law.