By Na Jeong-ju

Korea will scrap the statute limiting the time for prosecuting murderers as early as this year in an effort to better protect the lives of citizens, officials said Thursday.

The measure reflects growing public demand that the country abolish the statutes of limitations on premeditated homicide as well as crimes against children. Last year, the country removed such a statute on sexual abuse against disabled people and children under the age of 13.

The Ministry of Justice said it will submit a revised bill that calls for the removal of the statutory period for first-degree murder for National Assembly approval this year.

If the bill is passed, it will be retroactively applied to murders committed after 1997.

“The statute of limitations on premeditated murder and serial killing doesn’t exist in most states in the United States and in England and Germany. Japan also scrapped such a statute in 2010,” a ministry official said. “It has become an international trend as investigation-related technologies are developing and new methods of scientific investigation have been introduced.”

In 2007, Korea extended the statutory period for crimes that are punishable by the death sentence, including premeditated murder, to 25 years from the previous 15 years. However, civic groups have urged the government to remove it, citing high-profile murder cases that happened long ago, but have remained unresolved.

One of them is a serial murder case that took place in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. A total of 10 women were brutally killed from 1986 to 1991, but police failed to find the culprit.

Another is the case of five elementary schoolchildren in Daegu who went missing in 1991. For over a decade, some 500,000 police officers and soldiers were mobilized to find them, but failed.

The statutes of limitations for both cases have expired.

“It is impossible to prosecute those who were involved in the crimes that happened in Hwaseong and Daegu even if they are captured. The revised bill is based on feelings that those committing inhumane crimes should not be given such leniency,” the official said.

Civic groups are now campaigning for the abolishment of the statutes of limitations on other crimes, including those victimizing females and the elderly people.

“It is heartbreaking if a person who committed a brutal act escapes punishment only because of a time limit for prosecution,” said an official from the Korea Child Welfare Association.