Presidential office weighs life without parole as part of public safety push
Summary
South Korea’s presidential office said Sunday it is considering life imprisonment without parole as part of a public safety initiative targeting crimes against vulnerable people and other offenses. The initiative also includes efforts against scams, illegal drugs, illegal private lending, digital sex crimes and fabricated information. Presidential chief of staff Lim Kwang-hyun said President Lee Jae Myung directed the government last week to focus resources on protecting lives and making daily life safer. The proposal would distinguish life sentences with parole from those without it.
Key Facts
- The initiative will focus on relationship-based crimes and crimes with apparently random motives.
- Lim said the government is discussing a new public safety patrol unit and pursuing offenders responsible for economic harm even overseas.
- Under current law, people serving life sentences may be considered for parole after 20 years.
- The Cabinet approved a bill in 2023 to introduce life imprisonment without parole, but it did not pass the 21st National Assembly before its term ended in May 2024.
Presidential chief of staff Lim Kwang-hyun announces a project aimed at enhancing public safety during a press briefing at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, Sunday. Yonhap
South Korea's presidential office said Sunday it is considering life imprisonment without parole as part of an initiative aimed at strengthening public safety and cracking down on crimes targeting vulnerable people.
The initiative will focus on crimes targeting socially vulnerable people, including relationship-based crimes and crimes with apparently random motives.
The issue has drawn renewed attention amid a series of high-profile cases involving relationship-based violence in recent years, including the killing last month of a woman on the southern resort island of Jeju who had been under police protection after reporting stalking and dating violence, allegedly by a man who told police she was his former lover.
The government will also step up efforts to eradicate crimes involving scams, illegal drugs, illegal private lending, digital sex crimes and false or fabricated information, among other offenses that disrupt people's daily lives or threaten public order, presidential chief of staff Lim Kwang-hyun said.
Lim said the initiative follows instructions from President Lee Jae Myung at a Cabinet meeting last week to concentrate government-wide resources on protecting people's lives and making daily life safer.
"In cases involving economic harm that exploit people's desperate circumstances, we will pursue those responsible even overseas, dismantle the criminal operations at their source and block criminal proceeds," Lim said at a briefing.
"We are discussing measures such as establishing a new public safety patrol unit and introducing life imprisonment without parole."
Under current law, inmates serving life sentences may be considered for parole after serving 20 years.
In 2023, the Cabinet approved a bill to amend the Criminal Act to introduce life imprisonment without parole as a means of permanently isolating perpetrators of heinous crimes from society. The proposal would have allowed courts to distinguish between life sentences with and without the possibility of parole.
The bill failed to pass the 21st National Assembly before its term expired in May 2024.
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