Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan urged the head of Korean...

Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan urged the head of Korean legislature to support a special bill aimed at abolishing capital punishment.
At a meeting with National Assembly Speaker Lee Man-sup, Cardinal Kim said that no one has the right to take others' lives and that the death penalty should not be used as a tool of punishment.
"There is no any evidence that the death penalty can reduce crimes," Kim said.Kim, the country's top Roman Catholic leader, asked Lee to help with the legislation of the special bill, arguing that Korea should be the first Asian nation to abolish the death penalty.
Speaker Lee said that he personally believes that the death penalty, which could be abused in dealing with political prisoners, should be abolished.
The past authoritarian regimes were sometimes accused of using the capital punishment and the anti-communist National Security Law to oppress dissidents.
However, Lee expressed reservation about the bill, noting that it is a crucial matter that lawmakers should spend more time discussing.
"There still is the view held by the public that the death penalty helps reduce brutal crimes against humanity," Lee said.
Recent public surveys showed that more than half of Koreans still support the capital punishment.
Later in the day, Cardinal Kim attended an international forum on the death penalty at the National Assembly.The forum, titled "2001 Asia Forum/Seoul: Abolishment of the Death Penalty," drew about 80 leading activists from eight Asian nations as well as 300 Koreans.
The representatives of eight countries exchanged their views on the death penalty and discussed creation of an Asian solidarity in the region.
According to documents presented at the forum, 86 countries maintain capital punishment while 109 nations have laws prohibiting it.
During the past 19 years, 30 nations have abolished the death penalty.
The controversy over the capital punishment in the country was rekindled when 155 lawmakers signed the anti-death punishment bill. Only 137 votes are needed to pass a bill in the 237-member Korean National Assembly.
The Justice Ministry and the prosecution clearly said that they oppose the legislation.President Kim Dae-jung, a Roman Catholic, himself a death-row inmate during the past military dictatorship, has not authorized the execution of anyone sentenced to death since he took office in 1998.