Major Outlets Including Reuters and CNN Report in Unison
"A Tragedy Born of Recklessness"
As former President Yoon Sukyeol, who was indicted on charges of leading an insurrection, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first trial on the 19th, major foreign media outlets swiftly reported the news and gave it prominent coverage.
Candlelight protesters watching live coverage of Yoon Sukyeol's life sentence in the first-instance trial. Yonhap News
Major news agencies such as AP, AFP, and Reuters all issued breaking news alerts on the life imprisonment sentence immediately after it was handed down at 4:02 p.m. on the 19th. In an analytical article, Reuters wrote that former prosecutor Yoon Sukyeol, who had taken a gamble to seize power, ultimately became a victim of his own recklessness because he believed that he could eliminate his political opponents through emergency martial law.
U.S. broadcaster CNN described the ruling as an event that "closes a chapter in a political crisis that has repeatedly produced dramatic twists while testing South Korea's democratic safeguards." The British newspaper The Guardian also characterized the situation as "the most serious threat to South Korean democracy in decades" and reported the details extensively.
The New York Times (NYT), the BBC, and others ran live windows on the main pages of their websites, delivering real-time coverage of the events before and after the sentencing. In particular, the NYT noted that "the life sentence falls short of the death penalty sought by the special prosecutor," explaining that the court did not impose the death penalty in consideration of the former president's advanced age and the fact that he refrained from using lethal force during the period of martial law. The BBC pointedly commented that the episode had "clearly emerged as an attempt to extricate himself from his own political troubles."
Japanese and Chinese media also showed great interest. The Asahi Shimbun ran a real-time update window on the main page of its website, while the Yomiuri Shimbun provided background explaining that South Korea is effectively a country that has abolished the death penalty in practice.
China's state-run Xinhua News Agency and CCTV focused on the fact that the court found former President Yoon guilty of insurrection with the purpose of paralyzing the National Assembly. Hong Kong's Ming Pao introduced former President Yoon as the third former president to stand trial on insurrection charges, following Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo.
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