SOUTH KOREA: GOV'T MAY RESUME EXECUTIONS

September 4, 2012: In South Korea, the government is considering resuming executions of inmates on death row in a bid to counter rising cases of first-degree murders and rapes against minors.
A presidential aide told reporters that the government needs a social consensus on whether to resume execution, indicating that it would follow public opinions in deciding on the matter.
“That’s not a matter that only the government can resolve. It’s a public issue,” a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said on condition of anonymity.
“There should be discussions on whether executions can deter crimes first. There should be a social consensus to resume execution.”
The comments suggest that the country may drop its moratorium on execution amid public uproar over a series of killings of children and women in recent weeks. Recent online polls show more than 60 percent of South Koreans want the county to resume execution.
The country has not carried out an execution since 23 murder convicts were executed on Dec. 30, 1997, although courts still sentence the death penalty.
Currently, 60 convicts are on death row.
Two inmates on death row committed suicide in prison in 2009 and one another in 2011.
Advocates of children’s rights and women’s groups have launched public campaigns to call for resumption of execution.
Dozens of female activists held a rally on September 2 in Myeong-dong, central Seoul, in which they criticized the government for wasting taxpayers’ money on feeding and protecting child rapists and murderers. (Sources: koreatimes.co.kr, 04/09/2012)