Sex criminals will be put under closer watch

By Yi Whan-woo

Sex offenders will be placed under a tighter watch, the government said Sunday.

According to the Justice Ministry, their place of residence and occupation will be checked on twice a year to try and better monitor them.

The ministry will be responsible for deemed to require close attention, while others will be monitored by police.

Currently, only one check up is required per year but this rule is poorly maintained due to a lack of resources among other factors.

The decision comes amid a series of rape and murder cases.

A ministry official said it will look for approval from the National Assembly for the strengthened rules by the end of this month.

“It is urgent to make up for the shortcomings of the current policy in order to conduct closer monitoring of sex offenders,” he said.

“The new guidelines will allow us to take prompt measures when sex offenders turn in false information in terms of their residence, or when they move to new neighborhoods,” the ministry said.

He admitted that the present regulations have not worked properly to locate those who repeatedly commit sex crimes in their neighborhoods after serving prison terms.

Those subject to sex offender registration will be required to submit their personal information every six months to ministry branch offices or police stations in their neighborhood.

The required information includes their residential address, occupation, workplace address, and vehicle registration details to help authorities easily locate them.

Officials then will verify the records. Both ministry officials and police officers will be asked to share the information.

The government will check on the locations of ex-convicts for 10 years until they are exempt from registration as former sex offenders.

The ministry currently requires convicted sex criminals to turn in their residential information each year to a police station near their home. Police, however, have failed to undergo a thorough verification process, according to the ministry.

The current policy has turned out to be ineffective as a number of convicted sex criminals live at different addresses to those they initially reported after being released from prison.

A number of people are unaware that those convicted of crimes such as raping children live close to them.

Public concern has grown as more and more convicted sex offenders have attacked, raped or killed women and minors in their neighborhood.

Law enforcement authorities are under mounting criticism for their inaction on preventing sex crimes. Ex-convicts wearing electronic tagging devices have still reoffended recently.

A repeat sex offender wearing a tracking anklet was arrested in August on charges of killing a housewife in her apartment in Gwangjin, Seoul, after attempting to rape her. He lived just one kilometer from the victim.

Police caught the 42-year-old suspect, surnamed Suh, at the victim’s house after he sneaked inside as she sent her children off to school.

The investigators discovered later that Suh raped another female neighbor two weeks earlier.