South Korean Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung says the Catholic Church supports calls for the abolition of the death penalty in the country.
Catholic news agency Agenzia Fides reports that cardinal, who is the Archbishop of Seoul, has welcomed a campaign led by the National Human Rights Commission which aims to officially abolish the death penalty.
“For years there have been no executions in Korea, the Catholic Church has always reiterated ‘no to the death penalty’ and welcomes the initiative of parliamentarians, Christians and non, who have collected signatures to ask for the abolition of capital punishment from Korean law,” said Cardinal Yeom.
He added that while the death penalty does have some support among South Koreans who fear that eliminating “will encourage crime”, the Catholic community “has always witnessed and encouraged respect for life and the logic of forgiveness, accompanying also the families of the victims.”
A death sentence has not been carried out in South Korea since December, 1997, and there are hopes that President Moon Jae-in, himself a Catholic, will soon announce a formal moratorium.
“We are working to bring an announcement by President Moon Jae-in on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty around the time of this year’s 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Shim Sang-don, chief of the NHRC’s policy and education bureau was quoted on saying on 18th June.
There are reportedly 61 prisoners, including military officers, serving time in prison under a death sentence in South Korea.
