Handonghun "Death Penalty Needed... Life Imprisonment Without Parole Should Also Exist"

Han Dong-hoon, Minister of Justice, said on the 7th, "I believe that the death penalty system or life imprisonment without parole, which necessarily accompanies a (crime) prevention effect, is necessary."

Minister Han Dong-hoon [Image source=Yonhap News]

On the same day, Minister Han appeared at the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Special Committee's non-economic departments review and responded to Kim Hee-gon, a member of the People Power Party, who asked for his opinion on the death penalty system. South Korea has the death penalty system, but it has not been carried out since December 1997, effectively classifying it as a country that has abolished the death penalty in practice. However, Minister Han added, "Judges must be cautious and careful when sentencing the death penalty."

Minister Han stated, "There are definitely criminals who must be permanently isolated. There is no country in the world where people who have committed serial murders of 10 people and show no remorse while imprisoned come out after 10 to 20 years and roam freely again in a country ruled by law," adding, "Our sentencing has been lenient."

He continued, "Some people question the preventive effect, but that is because it involves humans, and exact human experiments cannot be conducted, but there is definitely a preventive effect," explaining, "People who are drunk do not pick fights with gangsters. There is definitely human nature."

The People Power Party and the government announced earlier this year that they would promote the introduction of life imprisonment without parole, etc., following a series of heinous crimes such as stabbing rampages and daytime sexual assaults, and on the 30th of last month, a revision bill to the Criminal Act containing these provisions passed the Cabinet meeting.