By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
People who commit sexual assaults against children under 13 and kill them will likely face the death penalty or life imprisonment.
At a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, the Ministry of Justice said it would instruct the prosecution to stiffen punishment on sex offenders against children or young students through revisions of the law.
The move comes after a man sexually abused and killed 10-year-old Lee Hye-jin and eight-year-old Woo Ye-seul in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, last December, and another man violently attempted to kidnap a 10-year-old schoolgirl in Ilsan, north of Seoul, Sunday.
Police requested an arrest warrant for the man in his 40s who attempted to kidnap the schoolgirl.
``Such criminals who commit sexual assaults and murder after kidnapping children should be subject to stiff penalties such as life imprisonment or capital punishment,'' Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said after presiding over the weekly Cabinet meeting.
``Crimes against children cannot be tolerated at all,'' Han said. ``Ministries related to public security should map out measures against such inhumane crimes.''
The government also said the minimum penalty for sex offenses against children will be adjusted upward to seven years, in a bid to block suspended sentences.
The Justice Ministry plans to create a DNA database as part of efforts to monitor sex offenders.
It will push for legislation to collect and manage genetic information from inmates or suspects to use for investigations or trials involving sex crimes.
The government measure comes amid increasing sexual violence in the country, particularly against children.
Despite the arrest of the suspected child kidnapper, citizens remain extremely anxious about the safety of their offspring and have called for stronger measures to prevent such crimes.
Before relying on police, parents are stepping up efforts to defend their children on their own. State-of-the-art monitoring devices are selling well, according to industry sources.
Kidnapping and sexual assaults on children are also on the rise. The number of sexual assaults on children aged under 13 rose to 1,081 cases in 2007 from 980 the previous year, according to police.
A majority of netizens are criticizing human rights organizations, which cautioned about the possibility of the contemplated DNA database violating human rights.
``Human rights cannot be applied to beast-like human-beings,'' a netizen said.