Capital punishment in South Korea
[2] The purpose of executions was mainly to make a statement to the people, essentially shocking the citizens into submission by not committing future crimes.In centuries past, the heads of executed people were displayed in public both to serve as a warning and to enforce military courtesy.Currently, the Penal Code of South Korea regulates executions as a form of punishment for some crimes according to the Criminal Law section 41.[10][11] According to a survey of 1,000 adults by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in October 2018, 79.7% of the Korean citizens were supportive of the death penalty.The poll showed 74% of South Korea citizens favoring the death penalty, tied with Japan and more than any other of the surveyed countries, including the United States (67%).In 2023, the government proposed a law to remove the extinction period in response to the case of Won, Korea's longest-serving death-row inmate, who was convicted of arson and manslaughter in November 1993 and whose sentence would otherwise have been revoked.In March 2010, in contrast to prior speculations, Minister Lee Kwi-nam hinted that the executions of death row inmates will resume, breaking the virtual 13-year moratorium.[18] On February 19, 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence passed on a man known by the surname 'Lim', a 24-year-old army sergeant who killed five fellow soldiers and injured seven others in a shooting rampage near the border with North Korea in 2014.