Parental Homicide Carries Aggravated Punishment Provisions
Filial Homicide Treated the Same as General Murder
[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] The Hwaseong Dongtan Police Station in Gyeonggi Province has requested an arrest warrant for Mr. A on charges of obstruction of official duties and violation of the Child Welfare Act. Mr. A is accused of threatening police officers with a weapon after calling 112 at around 10:30 p.m. on the 22nd from his home in Hwaseong City, saying, "I will kill my son." He was also charged with child abuse for showing his son the act of threatening the police with a weapon. When the police arrived, Mr. A confronted them through the front door that his son had left open. The police aimed a taser at him in preparation for any emergency and persuaded Mr. A to put down the weapon voluntarily before arresting him.
Incidents of children being assaulted or killed by their parents continue unabated. However, there are still no established punishment regulations to prevent this.
Last month, a man in his 40s was brought to trial for stabbing his wife and two teenage sons to death with a weapon in an apartment in Gwangmyeong City, Gyeonggi Province. Mr. B (45) is accused of killing his wife in her 40s and his two sons, a middle schooler and an elementary schooler, with a weapon he had prepared in advance at his home. After quitting his job about two years ago, Mr. B frequently quarreled with his wife, and conflicts worsened. It was investigated that he decided to kill his family after verbally abusing them because his eldest son went out wearing his slippers without permission. This was due to feeling disrespected.
Despite being a serious crime involving the murder of a wife and children who lacked the strength to resist, Mr. B’s personal information was not disclosed considering the aspects of 'secondary harm' and 'family crime.' According to the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Specific Violent Crimes (Special Act on Violent Crimes), when there is sufficient evidence to believe that a suspect committed a specific violent crime involving cruel means and serious damage, their face, name, age, etc., can be disclosed. However, the police stated that they decided not to disclose the information as there was no public interest in doing so.
On the other hand, in the case of Ko Yoo-jung, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing her ex-husband, personal information was disclosed despite it being a family crime. It is reported that Ko Yoo-jung also had young children with her ex-husband. The police explained that they had fully considered reasons for non-disclosure such as secondary harm to family members or acquaintances at that time.
Under current law, killing one’s own or spouse’s direct ascendants is separately defined as the crime of killing a direct ascendant, punishable by death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for seven years or more. In contrast, there are no aggravated punishment provisions for killing descendants, spouses, or cohabitants. They are punished the same as general murder. Because of this, unlike killing direct ascendants, there are no separate statistics. Although bills to strengthen punishment for killing descendants have occasionally been proposed in the National Assembly, they have not even been reviewed by subcommittees.
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