further signs of abolition of death penalty in ROK

Kyunghyang Sinmun's report on the prospective constitutional court members' negative position towards death penalty shows that South Korea is leaning towards the abolition of putting people to death by the government. Chôn Hyo-suk (Jun/Jeon/Chun/Cheon Hyo-suk/sook), the candidate for president of the constitutional court, told in parliamentary hearings that while she's for the maintaining of the national security law, she supports the abolition of death penalty. (In my view, both deserve to go, but death penalty is first in priority.) The abolition bill that was submitted already two years ago, despite having signed by a majority of lawmakers, hasn't gone anywhere from the legislation committee. No executions have taken place since the last days of Kim Young-sam's administration, when the authorities cleared the table, sarcastically speaking, for Kim Dae-jung's government. Neither KDJ nor Roh Moo-hyun have allowed execution of death sentences to take place. The Kyunghyang article gives also a summary of some cold (sorry sarcasm again) figures: in 2005, six death sentences were given in first trials (eight in 2004), and three sentences confirmed in the Supreme Court; presently there are 62 inmates in death row; 998 executions have taken after the establishment of ROK (what happened during the Korean War is apparently not included in this figure). • list of earlier posts on abolition of death penalty in ROK (del.icio.us/hunjang/) Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: deathpenalty ∙ Koreanpolitics ∙ Koreansociety