SOUTH KOREA: 7 IN 10 OPPOSE DEATH PENALTY

October 16, 2018:

The majority of South Koreans agree that the death penalty should be abolished and replaced with alternative forms of punishment, the state-run human rights body announced on 10 October 2018.
According to data from the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, 7 out of 10 Koreans are against retaining capital punishment on the condition that serious punitive measures are put in place to deter crime.
The commission released the data at a conference held to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty.
The survey showed that few Koreans were willing to do away with capital punishment immediately.
Only 4.4 % of respondents favored its immediate abolition, whereas 15.9 % agreed that it should be abolished at some point in the future.
However, the number rose steeply, to 66.9 %, when the question was rephrased to ask respondents if the death penalty should be replaced with other punitive measures.
Alternatives that respondents favored adopting in place of capital punishment included "absolute life imprisonment," which topped the list with 78.9 % in favor.
This was followed by "absolute life imprisonment with punitive damages,' favored by 43.9 % of survey respondents.
Currently, the most common penalty for murder is a life sentence.