Debate Heats Up Over Capital Punishment

By Kyle Van Horn

President Lee Myung-bak faces a tough decision as arguments for and against resuming the death penalty in South Korea mount in the wake of the arrest of the man assumed to have unremorsefully murdered seven women.

On the Korean Peninsula, attitudes toward capital punishment vary. Most people are angry. Many are scared. Some surprisingly remain indifferent.

Of the more than 100 South Korean people we at Venceremos had the opportunity to speak with, only slightly more than 50 percent favor putting the suspect in question to death.

``He's not a person,'' said Ryu, a resident of a small town a few hours south of Seoul. ``This country needs to set an example and show people that criminals like this need to die to ensure that this situation will never happen again.''

Others argue that no human being has the right to take the life of another under any circumstances. In other words, to be cliche, an eye-for-an-eye makes the whole world blind. There's no room, they say, for the death penalty to return to South Korea.

On more than a few occasions, people wanted neither the death penalty nor a slap on the wrist in the form of life imprisonment. Kim of Seoul went so far as to say, ``We don't need to kill him. We need to peel off his skin and pour salt and red pepper powder on the wounds forever!''

Anger obviously plays a role in the sentiments of the people. Even so, there isn't a popular judgment leaning one way or the other.

Amnesty International, however, has made its opinion concerning the matter perfectly clear. The secretary general of the human rights organization, Irene Khan, issued a statement saying that ``Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and considers it a violation to the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.''

South Korea has not practiced capital punishment since the last day of 1997, when the state executed 23 people in prisons around the country. And in December 2007, Amnesty International declared that South Korea was ``in practice'' an abolitionist country, after it had not executed anyone for ten years.

Last week, in an open letter, Secretary General Khan urged the South Korean president not to reverse his country's recent abstention from administering the death penalty.

``I would like to stress that our opposition to the death penalty does not in any way distract from the sympathy for the victims of violent crimes and their loved ones,'' Khan explained.

At the moment, 58 men and women in Korea sit on death row.

Last month, members of the ruling Grand National Party, the National Police Agency, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security met to discuss the fates of these 58 inmates. Also in question was whether or not to introduce life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Since 2004, the world has seen the governments of Greece, Albania, Uzbekistan, the Philippines, Rwanda, Turkey, Mexico, and Bhutan rescind the death penalty.

Executions are becoming increasingly taboo in the first decade of the 21st century. In total, 138 have now abolished capital punishment either in law or (in South Korea's case) in practice. Only 24 countries carried out executions in 2007, and the figure for 2008 promises to remain nearly the same.

``I urge the government of South Korea to signal its embrace of the international trend to move away from using the death penalty and to refrain from reintroducing executions,'' Khan said in her letter to President Lee.

``If the South Korean government carries out the death penalty, it ignores an international trend toward abolition of the death penalty system.''

A growing number of South Korean citizens are becoming increasingly concerned about another trend as well. Since Lee Myung-bak took office a little more than a year ago, he has overseen the reversal of several ``liberal'' reforms made in recent years.

His ultra-conservative policies remind many people on the peninsula of the dark ages of oppression and rightwing, authoritarian governments of the pre-1990s.

If President Lee's government decides to close its ears to the humanitarian voice, resorting once again to capital punishment, it will provide yet another example of the administration rolling back the years.

Kyle Van Horn is a freelance writer and activist for Venceremos Solidarity Network (www.venceremosonline.org). He can be reached at kr_vanhorn@yahoo.com.