By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The Supreme Court Thursday handed down an appellate court's death penalty to Chung Sung-hyun on charges of kidnapping and murdering three people, including two children, between 2004 and 2007.
The 40-year-old was indicted in early 2008 on charges of kidnapping and strangling two primary school students ㅡ Lee Hye-jin, 11, and Woo Yae-seul, 8 ㅡ in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, in December 2007, and a 44-year-old woman in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, in July, 2004.
``These heinous crimes targeting children deserve the harshest punishment permitted by the law,'' the top court said in the ruling.
During questioning, he admitted to the killings after failing to rape them. Police found their dismembered bodies in the vicinity of the locations where they were last seen.
A provincial court sentenced him to capital punishment, saying ``It was necessary to end such heinous crimes against innocent children.'' An appellate court upheld the ruling, citing them as ``premeditated'' crimes.
Despite the final decision, it's uncertain whether or not the authorities are to put the ruling into practice since the government is seriously considering replacing execution with life in prison without pardon in efforts to be internationally recognized as a country upholding staunch human rights protection policies.
There are 59 convicted criminals on death row including Chung, the Ministry of Justice said. But no executions have taken place since 1997, placing the country on the list of ``death penalty-free states'' by Amnesty International in 2007.