Exactly 406 days since Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, the special counsel team requested the death penalty for the former president, accused of plotting and implementing an insurrection. By seeking the toughest penalty possible for insurrection charges, the independent counsel is sending the message that the former president’s actions — sending armed forces and the police into the National Assembly and the National Election Commission — gravely undermined the constitution. In a country where no executions have been carried out since 1997, the special prosecution team is saying that the legal judgement should be so severe as to “convey that such history will not repeat itself again.” The trial that took place at Seoul Central District Court and the resulting death penalty request are a painfully jarring reminder of what took place in 1996. Prosecutors had requested the death penalty for former President Chun Doo-hwan, for his role in the Dec. 12, 1979, military coup and the bloody crackdown on the May 18 Gwangju uprising, while life imprisonment was sought