SOUTH KOREA. JUSTICE MINISTER OPPOSES ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY

South Korea’s Justice Minister, Kim Seung-kyu, voiced opposition to terminating capital punishment. 
“Although the life of a criminal is important, the lives of victims are also important,” he told reporters.
He noted that 90 percent of prosecutors opposed the abolition of capital punishment, which he said serves as an effective means of preventing murder.
His comment came in a counterattack against the National Human Rights Commission’s recommendation that capital punishment be scrapped.
Opponents of capital punishment claimed letting authorities take the life of human beings contradicted the Constitution and undermined human dignity.
“The death penalty must be abolished. A human being’s life cannot be taken by others,” said Kim Duk-jin, an executive member of the Catholic Human Rights Commission.
Some people argued that the court could misjudge a case. “Although the hatred of victims is understandable, it cannot match the feeling of desperation of victims convicted for execution by a wrong judgment,” said Rep. Yoo Ihn-tae of the ruling Uri Party.
Others said capital punishment had failed to prevent heinous crimes.
“Despite the introduction of the death penalty, the number of murders has never decreased. Life imprisonment is actually a heavier punishment than the death penalty because it makes the prisoner continuously reflect on the crime while in prison,” Rep. Roh Hoe-chan, of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party, said.
Supporters of the death penalty acknowledged that court misjudgements were possible. But stressed that the death penalty as the ultimate punishment had a symbolic meaning.  “Capital punishment is meant to prevent individuals from taking revenge, enabling the state to punish in accordance with the law. We can avoid the vicious circle of crimes with the death penalty,” Kim Sang-kyum, professor at Dongkuk University, said. Some 66 percent of people oppose the abolition of the death penalty in South Korea, according to a recent poll, compared with 81.5 percent opposition in Japan.