Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Seoul (Agenzia Fides) - Since there have been no executions in South Korea for ten years the Republic is now an abolitionist “de facto”, although officially the death penalty is still part of the country's juridical system.
Recently at a ceremony in Seoul to proclaim the country abolitionist “de facto", civil and religious praised Korea's Judiciary for these ten years during which no death sentences have been carried out.
The actual date of the ten year period is 29 December, but there are no executions programmed in the coming months.
As the United Nations is about to present a request for a universal moratoria of the death penalty, many in Korea hope the national orientation will not change and that capital punishment in the country will be abrogated.
Present at the ceremony in the capital Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan, emeritus Archbishop of Seoul, said: “I am truly happy that Korea is on the way to becoming an abolitionist of the death penalty”. He congratulated the government and those who work actively to defend respect for human life from conception to natural end. “I hope Korea will take another step and join other nations where human life and human rights are respected as supreme values”, Cardinal Kim concluded.
Former Korean president Kim Dae-jung, also present, said the “ceremony to declare Korea and abolitionist “de facto" was the most important moment in the history of human rights in Korea”. Ahn Kyong-whan, head of Korea's National Human Rights Commission said the right to life was sacred and the act of eliminating a life was a crime against humanity and he hoped the country would soon abolish capital punishment. For this to happen parliament must approve a Bill to abolish capital punishment soon to be discussd. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 12/10/2007 righe 25 parole 259)
