South Korea has 61 people currently on death row

Posted on : 2018-10-16 17:38 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
10 inmates have died from disease or suicide since last execution in Dec. 1997
A scene from the South Korean film “Executioner”
A scene from the South Korean film “Executioner”

South Korea currently has a total 61 people on death row, with 57 people in ordinary correctional facilities and 4 in military prisons.

According to data that Democratic Party lawmaker Geum Tae-seop received from the Justice Ministry and made public on Oct. 15, the largest number of death-row convicts, or 16, are in the Seoul Detention Center, followed by Gwangju Prison (13), Daegu Prison (12), Daejeon Prison (12) and the Busan Detention Center (4).

The majority of the death-row convicts detained at regular prisons were sentenced to death for murder. Of the 57, 49 were charged with murder (parricide or murder during a robbery). Of the remaining eight, three were convicted of sexual violence, such as rape and murder; two for arson, including arson causing death; and three for the kidnapping and murder of minors according to the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes.

Some of these detainees are vicious criminals whose acts horrified society. Yu Yeong-cheol, who killed 20 elderly people and women, and the members of the Makgapa gang, who kidnapped a woman and buried her alive, were all sentenced to death.

The death-row convicts detained in military prisons were sentenced according to the military criminal code on charges of murder or killing a superior officer. These four include a private surnamed Kim who killed eight soldiers with grenades and firearms in 2005 after being mistreated in his barracks at an outpost in the front line in Gangwon Province and a sergeant surnamed Lim who shot and killed five people in 2014 after being the victim of group bullying at a base in Goseong County, Gangwon Province.

The longest-serving death-row convict is a 61-year-old individual surnamed Won whose death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court in Nov. 1993 and who has been on death row for 25 years. The most recent addition to death row was Lim, the sergeant, whose sentence was confirmed in 2016.

Ten death-row convicts have died since South Korea carried out its last execution on Dec. 30, 1997. Five of those convicts died of disease, while the other five ended their own life. Jeong Nam-gyu, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 individuals, was so afraid of being executed that he hung himself at the Seoul Detention Center in 2009 at the age of 40.

In 2015, another death-row convict surnamed Lee died two days after he tried to hang himself in prison at the age of 51. Lee had been sentenced to death in 1999 after murdering four family members of his creditors, who he said had been harassing him to pay back his debts.

By Shin Min-jung, staff reporter

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

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