South Korea has executed a total of 1,634 people for...

South Korea has executed a total of 1,634 people for serious crimes since it was liberated from Japanese rule in 1945, averaging 28.6 people a year, according to the Justice Ministry.
Since Independence in 1948, 902 people have been executed in South Korea, most of them by hanging.
More than half of those executed up to 1987 had violated the National Security Law, a set of stringent strictures prohibiting even the vaguest expression of sympathy for communist North Korea.
Since 1991, 96 were executed - 39 during the days of former President Roh Tae-woo and 57 under the Kim Young-sam government.
The executions of Cho Bong-am as head of the then Progressive Party during the days of the late President Syngman Rhee and Cho Yong-su as president-publisher of the then National Daily were criticized by religious organizations and others for running counter to the international movement against capital punishment.
Since relations with the North began improving a few years ago, South Korea's overall climate has become more relaxed and, along with that, public attitudes toward capital punishment.
Nobody has been executed since February 1998 when President Kim Dae-jung was sworn in and 53 criminals condemned to death are now in prison.