18 Drones for Martial Law: Inside the 2024 Yoon Suk Yeol Secret Operation
New documents reveal the 2024 secret drone operation authorized by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration to provoke North Korea as a pretext for martial law.
A clandestine military operation nearly plunged the Korean Peninsula into conflict—all to justify a domestic power grab. Internal documents revealed on January 15, 2026, detail how the military deployed dozens of troops to provoke North Korea just before former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law bid.
The Secret 2024 Yoon Suk Yeol Martial Law Drone Operation
According to records provided by Rep. Choo Mi-ae, the military mobilized 59 soldiers from front-line drone units between October and November 2024. Their mission was to dispatch 18 drones carrying anti-regime leaflets into Pyongyang and other major northern cities over 11 occasions.
The operation's alleged goal was to incite a military response from the North, providing a pretext for the short-lived martial law imposition in December 2024. Crucially, the plan was kept secret from the United States and the UN Command, bypassing critical alliance communication channels and increasing the risk of an uncoordinated escalation.
Command Failure and Legal Fallout
The Defense Ministry's disciplinary committee later assessed that the move could have triggered devastating retaliatory attacks. Because front-line units were excluded from the secret, they wouldn't have been prepared to respond to a North Korean counter-provocation.
As a result, Yeo In-hyung, the former chief of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, was removed from office in late 2025. Yoon, Yeo, and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun now face charges of aiding the enemy in connection with the drone dispatch.
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