Seoul:Park Jong-joon, the former chief of the Presidential Security Service (PSS), was sentenced to three years in prison by an appellate court on Wednesday. The sentence was a reduction from the four-year term previously handed down by a lower court in July. Park was convicted for obstructing investigators attempting to execute a warrant to detain former President Yoon Suk Yeol over his imposition of martial law.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Seoul High Court decided to reduce Park's sentence as he did not appear to have actively engaged in physical confrontations with officials during the incident. Furthermore, the court noted that Park's resignation on January 7 of the previous year could be seen as an acknowledgment of responsibility for the situation that ensued.

In the same case, the court upheld a five-year prison sentence for Kim Seong-hoon, the former deputy chief of the PSS, citing his significant role in organizing resistance to the warrant's execution. Lee Kwang-woo, the former chief of the PSS' bodyguard division, received a two-year prison sentence, while Kim Shin, a former PSS official responsible for the security of the president's family, was given a one-year suspended prison term.