hankyoreh

The suicide of a death-row inmate has led to controversy in South Korea over whether to maintain the current death penalty system.

The Justice Ministry announced on Sunday that death-row inmate Chung Nam-kyu, 40 years old, committed suicide on Nov. 21 by hanging himself with a garbage bag in a cell in the Seoul Detention House located in Uiwang City, Gyeonggi Province. Chung had killed 13 women and an elementary school student in 2004 and was arrested and sentenced to death on April 12, 2007. His suicide comes 31 months after the ruling. The Justice Ministry stated, “Chung may have committed suicide due to his increasing uneasiness over increasing public opinion to reinstate the death penalty.” South Korea has not executed a death-row inmate since Dec. 1997.

Controversy in the Internet portal Daum’s Agora forum began immediately following the Justice Ministry’s announcement. One netizen opened a discussion on the death penalty by writing, “Chung’s suicide has once again raised to us familiar and old questions over the death penalty.” Over 400 hundred comments were made to his post, and the number of hits to the discussion thread exceeded 30 thousand.

One netizen with ID ‘Mandugongju’ posted the following comment in support of due process in the death penalty system, “We should be guaranteeing the victims’ human rights in the law because their rights matter just as much as those of the perpetrators.” Another netizen with ID ‘Nuri’ posted the following against a death penalty system, “Every life is a gift from heaven, thus we should not terminate any person’s life.”

The Constitutional Court is scheduled to issue a ruling on whether the death penalty violates constitutionally guaranteed human rights in December.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]