Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment in South Korea and people are sentenced to it, recently on April 21, 2009, when Kang Ho-sun was convicted for the murder of ten people. But the capital punishment has been not carried out since 1998, when the late President Kim Dae-jung came into power. Most recently where 23 people put to death on 31 December 1997.[1]
"Kang Ho-sun" was convicted of kidnapping and killing eight women between 2006 and 2008, and of burning to death his wife and mother-in-law in 2005. Kang, 38, was arrested in January over the murder of a female college student, and later confessed to killing and secretly burying seven other women.[2] Other death row inmates includes Yoo Young-chul and members of the Chijon family, a former gang of cannibals.
The South Korean Government confirmed in September 2009 it would not execute people sentenced to death in the past or in the future.[3]
The Constitutional Court is scheduled to issue a ruling on whether the death penalty violates constitutionally guaranteed human rights in December 2009.[4]
