Korean groups sharpen call for death penalty abolition
South Korea’s rights commission says the country has to abolish the death penalty to live up to international standards
South Korean activists hold placards reading 'It is time to abolish the death penalty' during a rally demanding the death penalty be removed from the country's criminal code at the National Assembly in Seoul. (Photo: AFP)
By UCA News reporter
Published: October 12, 2023 06:40 AM GMT
Catholics, Protestants and other Christian groups joined rights activists in South Korea to call for an end to capital punishment, marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty on Oct. 10.
The United Conference on the Abolition of the Death Penalty, a forum that includes members of several Christian denominations and rights groups appealed to political decision-makers to abolish capital punishment as a mark of respect for human life."Attempts to execute people must be stopped, and the campaign to abolish the death penalty in Korea must continue," the group said in a statement.
South Korea has not executed anyone since 1997 and therefore Amnesty International categorizes it as “an abolitionist country in practice.”
However, the death penalty continues to be the toughest sentence in the country’s criminal justice system. At least 59 people are on death row, all of them convicted of murder.
"Although the government assures that no executions will be carried out, we are concerned because the media is spreading reports that execution facilities are operational. And the move to gather prisoners sentenced to death at Seoul Detention Center goes in the same direction," the statement said.
"Punishing a horrible crime with a horrible punishment is in itself a horrible thing"
The statement was referring to the Korean Ministry of Justice recently transferring two death row inmates to the Seoul Detention Center, a facility established to carry out executions.
Yoo Young-cheol (a serial killer of 21 people) and Jeong Hyeong-gu (also a convicted murderer) were transferred to the center, which houses 18 death row inmates, according to the Vatican's Fides news.
"Punishing a horrible crime with a horrible punishment is in itself a horrible thing. It should be remembered that the death penalty has no deterrent effect, is not useful, and should be abolished," the conference statement said.
The Korean Ministry of Justice is leaning toward maintaining capital punishment, despite Korean President Seok-yeol Yoon voting in favor of a global moratorium on it at the United Nations General Assembly last December, the statement said.
South Korea’s human rights commission also said the country has to abolish the death penalty to live up to international standards as a majority of the nations in the world have abolished it.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea in a statement on Oct. 10 said at least 144 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. A minority of 55 countries still retained the death penalty at the end of 2022, it said quoting Amnesty.
“This is the time to formally discuss repealing capital punishment. Many of those who supported the existence of the death penalty responded positively to the abolition of the death penalty when alternative punishments were introduced,” commission chair, Song Doo-hwan, said in the statement.