SOUTH KOREA: MILITARY MAY ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY FOR MURDER OF SUPERIORS

the South Korean government is seeking to revise the country's military penal code that imposes the death penalty for the murder of one's superior, sources said. The unprecedented move by the Ministry of Defence came in response to a ruling by the Constitutional Court that the article in the code contravenes the Constitution. "The ministry plans to amend the military penal code so that a punishment less than the death penalty can be imposed on those who murder higher-ranking officers and the sentencing can be done on the same level as common criminal law," a source at the ministry said, requesting anonymity. The ministry plans to submit a revised bill to the National Assembly later this year, sources said. The military penal code article 53 was brought to debate after a soldier convicted of murder successfully claimed that the blanket law breached the Constitution. Despite the verdict, however, the Court of Military Appeals upheld the lower military court's ruling on Kim, sentencing him to death for attempted murder and property damage, rather than murder of superiors.