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Thread: South Korea

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    South Korea

    Social consensus is necessary for South Korea to end its moratorium on execution of death row inmates, a senior presidential official said Monday, as last week's shocking kidnapping and rape of a seven-year-old girl has raised calls for resuming executions.

    South Korean courts still hand down the death penalty, but the country has not carried out an execution since some two dozen convicts were last 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.

    Fresh calls for resuming executions have risen in the wake of last week's child rape that left the little girl with a ruptured rectum and other serious injuries. A 23-year-old jobless man living in the girl's neighborhood in the southern city of Naju has been arrested and confessed to breaking into the girl's home, and kidnapping and raping her.

    "This is not something the government should take the initiative on," a senior presidential official said of the possibility of resuming executions. "Social consensus is needed, including discussions on whether capital punishment can deter crimes."

    The official said the government is watching how the public views the issue.

    (Source: Yonhap News Agency)
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    South Korea seeks death penalty for ferry captain

    By HYUNG-JIN KIM
    Associated Press

    SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for the captain of a ferry that sank earlier this year, killing more than 300 people, blaming his negligence and failure to rescue passengers in need for the massive loss of life, a court official and news reports said.

    Prosecutors also requested life sentences for three other key crew members during a trial at the Gwangju District Court in southern South Korea, a court official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media about the sentence requests. He said prosecutors asked for sentences of up to 30 years for 11 other crew members.

    The 15 crew members tasked with the ship's navigation were among the first people rescued from the ship when it began badly listing, a source of the fierce public anger directed at them. Most of those who died in the disaster were students from a single high school who were en route from Incheon, west of Seoul, to the resort island of Jeju on April 16.

    "The captain made no rescue efforts after issuing a broadcast asking passengers to stay in their cabins. ... He didn't organize any rescue operations after leaving the ship," Yonhap news agency quoted prosecutors as saying during the trial on Monday. Other South Korean media also carried the comments, but the court official said he couldn't confirm them.

    Capt. Lee Joon-seok and the three key crew members - a first mate, a second mate and the chief engineer - were indicted in May on homicide charges. Eleven other crew members were indicted on less serious charges.

    Court officials have said the court will issue verdicts on the 15 crew members in November.

    The death penalty is the maximum legal sentence in South Korea, but the country has a de facto moratorium on capital punishment and has not executed anyone since December 1997. South Korean courts, however, still occasionally issue death sentences.

    Kook Joung-don, a lawyer for the relatives of the victims, said they were "angry" because they thought the overall requested punishment for the crew members was not strong enough. But Seoul-based lawyer Kwon Young-gook said he was skeptical about whether authorities were trying to make the crew members bear the entire responsibility for the disaster.

    The sinking, one of South Korea's deadliest disasters in decades, caused nationwide grief and fury, with authorities blaming overloading of cargo, improper storage, untimely rescue efforts and other negligence for the incident.

    More than six months after the sinking, the bodies of 294 people have been recovered, while 10 others have not been found. A total of 476 people were aboard the ship, with 172 of them rescued.

    Lee has apologized for abandoning the passengers, but said he didn't know his action would lead to so many deaths.

    Many student survivors have said they were repeatedly ordered over a loudspeaker to stay on the sinking ship and that they didn't remember any evacuation order being given before they helped each other flee the vessel.

    Lee has said he issued an evacuation order for passengers. But he initially told reporters days after his arrest that he withheld the evacuation order because rescuers had yet to arrive and he feared for the passengers' safety in the cold, swift waters.

    The defense in the trial has denied any collusion among the crew members, saying they were confused, injured and panicked.

    Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.

    http://www.fox8live.com/story/270203...-ferry-captain
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #3
    Banned TheKindExecutioner's Avatar
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    Cool! I didn't even know South Korea had the death penalty.

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    HA, HA, me either. I had to look it up on wikepedia. It seems there is a moratorium in place and they have not executed anyone since 1997.
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    South Korea ferry captain gets 36 years in prison for negligence, abandoning sinking ship

    By AP

    A South Korean ferry captain was sentenced Tuesday to 36 years in prison for negligence and abandoning passengers when his ship sank earlier this year, but the court acquitted him of homicide, concluding there was no proof he knew his actions would cause the more than 300 deaths that shocked and outraged the country.

    The highly anticipated verdict came on the same day searches were called off for the final nine victims and amid continuing grief and finger-pointing over one of the worst disasters in South Korean history. Victims' relatives immediately criticized the sentences for Capt. Lee Joon-seok and other crew members as too lenient, with some weeping and shouting during the court proceedings.

    "Do you know how many children are dead?" one relative said, according to Kook Joung-don, a lawyer for the relatives.

    The Gwangju District Court in southern South Korea also concluded that Lee had issued an evacuation order and had left the ship after rescue boats arrived on the scene, the court said in a statement.

    Most of the ferry passengers were teenage students taking a school trip, and many student survivors have said they were repeatedly ordered over a loudspeaker to stay on the sinking ship and that they didn't remember any evacuation order being given before they helped each other flee the vessel.

    Lee, 69, has said he issued an evacuation order. But he told reporters days after his arrest that he withheld the evacuation order because rescuers had yet to arrive and he feared for the passengers' safety in the cold, swift waters.

    The widely vilified captain could have received a death sentence had he been convicted on the homicide charge.

    The court sentenced the ship's chief engineer to 30 years in prison and 13 other crew members to up to 20 years in prison, the statement said.

    The engineer, Park Ki-ho, was convicted of homicide because he abandoned two injured colleagues, escaped the ferry and failed to tell rescuers about them, even though he knew they would die without help, the court said.

    However, it cleared two other crew members of homicide charges for the same reasons it acquitted the captain. Those crew members got 15 and 20 years in prison, it said.

    Prosecutors and the crew members have one week to appeal, according to the court. Relatives of the victims said they will ask prosecutors to appeal the ruling, but senior prosecutor Park Jae-eok said his office hasn't decided whether to do so.

    The 15 crew members tasked with navigating the ferry Sewol have faced scathing public criticism because they escaped the sinking ship while many passengers were still trapped. A total of 476 people were aboard the ship and only 172 were rescued in the April disaster.

    Prosecutors have accused the crew members of tacitly colluding to abandon the ship even though they knew that passengers would be trapped and killed after it sank. The defense in the trial has denied any collusion among the crew members, saying they were confused, injured and panicked.

    Nearly seven months after the sinking, 295 bodies have been recovered but nine are missing. Officials said Tuesday they've ended searches because there was only a remote chance of finding more bodies while worries have grown over the safety of divers. Two civilian divers have died after falling unconscious during searches.

    "As our loved ones remain trapped in the cold waters, this decision is unbearably painful for us. But we requested that the search operations be stopped" because of safety concerns, Min Dong-im, 36, the wife of a missing teacher, tearfully said at a televised news conference.

    The sinking has prompted widespread grief and a rare bout of soul-searching about lax safety practices in South Korea. Authorities blamed overloaded cargo, improper storage, untimely rescue efforts and corruption by the ship's owners that prevented enough spending on safety, along with the crew members' behavior, for the sinking.

    The ship's billionaire owner was found dead about four months ago after fleeing arrest, and three of his relatives were sentenced last week to up to three years in prison for corruption. Last Friday, South Korean lawmakers approved plans to disband the coast guard and transfer its responsibilities.

    South Korea has spent months debating public safety issues that critics say were largely ignored while the country rose to an Asian economic power in the decades after the 1950-53 Korean War. But a series of smaller deadly accidents have occurred since the sinking. In mid-October, 16 people watching an outdoor pop concert fell to their deaths when a ventilation grate they were standing on collapsed.

    http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/...l#incart_river
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #6
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Stro07's Avatar
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    South Korean soldier gets death sentence for shooting spree

    SEOUL — A South Korean military court today handed down a death sentence to a young conscript who killed five colleagues in a shooting spree at a guard post near the border with North Korea last year.

    The court martial in the eastern city of Wonju condemned the 22-year-old sergeant, surnamed Lim, to death for committing what it called “premeditated and cruel” killings, Yonhap news agency said.

    Lim remained silent, keeping his head lowered throughout the sentencing.

    The case will now go to an appeals court and then to the Supreme Court, an automatic procedure in South Korea in the case of death sentences.

    South Korea has not carried out any executions under its death penalty since 1997 following international pressure, with such sentences effectively translating into life in prison.

    In his pre-sentence statement on January 23, Lim said he was deeply remorseful for his actions.

    “I feel deeply sorry for the victims and their relatives,” Lim said in the statement.

    “I am overcome with remorse... How happy would I be, had it been merely a dream and had it been possible to return to the past?”

    In June last year Lim threw a grenade and opened fire on members of his unit, killing five and wounding seven, near a frontline guard post.

    He was captured alive after he wounded himself in a failed suicide attempt following a 24-hour standoff with thousands of troops.

    Lim, who was listed as a soldier requiring special observation, told investigators he carried out the attack in revenge for constant mockery and harassment against him.

    Barrack-room bullying has long tainted South Korea’s military service. It has been blamed for numerous suicides and incidents where conscripts have turned their weapons on their comrades.

    Conscripts, most of them in their early twenties, account for the lion’s share of the military’s 690,000 active personnel.

    In 2011 a 19-year-old marine conscript killed four colleagues on a western island near the border. Eight soldiers were killed in 2005 when a conscript threw a grenade and sprayed bullets over the sleeping men at a frontline guard post.

    In both cases the men were court-martialed and sentenced to death, although the penalty was not carried out.

    In October last year, an army sergeant was sentenced to 45 years in prison for beating a private to death, while four other soldiers received jail terms of up to 30 years.

    Prosecutors said the private had been subjected to regular bullying and assaults, including sessions of crude water-boarding.

    http://www.themalaymailonline.com/wo....dnnQueWE.dpuf

  7. #7
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    S. Korea prosecutors seek death penalty for Sewol ferry captain

    South Korean prosecutors on Tuesday urged an appeals court to hand down the death penalty for the captain of the ferry that sank a year ago, accusing him of intentionally abandoning more than 300 people to their certain deaths.

    Captain Lee Jun-Seok and 14 of his surviving crew were handed jail terms in November ranging from five to 36 years for their roles in the disaster.

    The 36-year sentence was imposed on Lee, who was convicted of gross negligence and dereliction of duty, but acquitted of a more serious homicide charge along with two crew members.

    The prosecution wanted the high court in the southern city of Gwangju to reconsider the dismissed homicide charges, while the defendants appealed their convictions and the severity of the sentences.

    At a final hearing on Tuesday, Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed prosecutor as saying Lee escaped the ship "without taking any steps to rescue passengers".

    Prosecutors have insisted that Lee deserved the death penalty, insisting he abandoned the passengers intentionally.

    The notion of intention has been at the core of the appeals lodged by both sides.

    Dismissing homicide charges against Lee and two crew members in November, the lower court ruled prosecutors had failed to prove the defendants abandoned the ship in the knowledge that the passengers would die as a result.

    The exception was the ship's chief engineer, who was convicted of homicide for specifically failing to help two injured crew members who then drowned.

    The Sewol was carrying 476 people when it sank off the southwest coast on April 16 last year. Of the 304 who died, 250 were pupils from the same high school.

    The tragedy shocked and enraged the country as it became clear that it was almost entirely man-made -- the result of an illegal redesign, an overloaded cargo bay, an inexperienced crew and an unhealthy nexus between operators and state regulators.

    Lee and his crew were publicly vilified, especially after video footage emerged showing them escaping the vessel while hundreds remained trapped on board.

    The high court will deliver its verdict on April 28.

    http://www.france24.com/en/20150407-...ferry-captain/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Death penalty sought for doctor accused of fatally poisoning wife

    By Bahk Eun-ji and Park Si-soo
    Korea Times

    Prosecutors want the death penalty for a plastic surgeon accused of killing his wife with a lethal injection.

    The Daejeon High Prosecutors' Office said on Wednesday it is seeking the highest punishment for the doctor, surnamed Bin, 45. He is suspected of killing his wife in March by injecting a lethal dose of poison into her while she slept at home. The doctor initially insisted she died of a heart attack. But police found evidence that led Bin to be prosecuted in April.

    According to investigators, Bin and his wife were on bad terms for various reasons, and he killed her for assets registered in her name.

    http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nati...51_236787.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    South Korea's 'Molar Daddy' gets death penalty for murdering teen girl

    By The Straits Times

    SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A court in South Korea on Wednesday (Feb 21) meted out the death sentence to a man charged with killing a school friend of his daughter after sexually molesting her, Yonhap news agency reported.

    The Seoul Northern District Court handed down the gravest possible punishment on 36-year-old Lee Young Hak, more infamously known as "Molar Daddy".

    Lee had confessed to choking a 14-year-old girl to death in his home last September after committing lewd acts on her body while she was drugged.

    Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty.

    They also sentenced his daughter, whose identity was not revealed, to four years in prison for luring the friend to the house and helping her father dump her body, Yonhap said.

    But her sentence can be extended up to six years in case of an infraction during her four-year imprisonment.

    The killing shocked the nation as Lee was publicly known after appearing on a TV show in the 2000s, which portrayed him as a poor man suffering from a rare dental disease while trying to eke out a living with a daughter who had the same incurable illness.

    Lee earned the nickname after losing all but one molar while treating the disease.

    http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/eas...ring-teen-girl
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #10
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Prosecutors seek death penalty for motel arsonist

    Prosecutors on Monday sought the death penalty for a middle-aged man accused of setting fire to a motel in Jongno-gu, Seoul, in January, killing seven people and injuring 3.

    The alleged arsonist, 53, surnamed Yoo, pled guilty to the crime and begged for mercy.

    At a trial hearing in Seoul Central District Court, the prosecution asked the judge for capital punishment, saying his crime was "prepared with intention to kill people."

    The suspect claimed the crime took place when he was "drunk" so he "couldn't make a right judgment" at that time.

    "All the evidence and testimonies show the accused, who was sober, poured gasoline on the floor (of the motel), set it on fire and checked if the fire was catching before leaving the building," the prosecutor said. "It doesn't make sense that he committed the crime while he was drunk."

    Court documents say Yoo committed the crime at 3 a.m. on Jan. 20 after a motel manager rejected his call to send a call-girl to his room. In a fit of anger, he poured 10 liters of gasoline he bought at a nearby gas station and set it alight.

    The ruling trial is scheduled for May 4 at 10:10 a.m.

    (source: The Korea Times)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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