Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik on Thursday expressed caution about recent calls for a resumption of the death penalty, saying he believes the issue should be "handled carefully" despite public anger over a series of rapes and other violent crimes.
Public calls have grown for executing criminals on death row after a seven-year-old girl was kidnapped and raped by a 23-year-old man last week, the latest in a series of sexual assaults that have left several women and young girls dead or injured.
South Korean courts still hand down the death penalty, but the country has not carried out an execution since some two dozen convicts were executed in late 1997. In 2007, Amnesty International categorized South Korea as a country that has "virtually abolished capital punishment."
Currently, about 60 convicts are on death row.
"My personal opinion is that (criminals) should be given a life sentence, however heinous their crime," Kim said at a parliamentary interpellation session. "Human beings should be reformed rather than killed."
The prime minister added he has always held on to the view that capital punishment should be abolished, as it could lead to the death of innocent people.
However, he acknowledged that the public may have other opinions.
"Because the majority of people see a need for the death penalty, it should be handled carefully," Kim said. (Yonhap)