S. Korea abstains in U.N. vote on ending capital punishment

SEOUL, Nov. 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea abstained from voting on a U.N. resolution to end the death penalty worldwide, despite a decade-long suspension of executions in the country, officials said Friday.

Seoul refrained from backing the U.N. General Assembly Third Committee's
resolution in a vote in New York on Thursday, which calls for a global moratorium
on death penalty, officials at the foreign ministry and Amnesty International
said.
In total, 105 countries voted in favor of the resolution, 48 against and 31
abstained.
"The death penalty was not practiced here for the past 11 years in honor of life
and human rights, but (its) abolition is not an official position of the Korean
government. Capital punishment still exists in terms of law," Jang Jae-bok, a
foreign ministry official, said.
The U.N. Third Committee's resolution will be submitted to the U.N. General
Assembly for a final vote in late December.
The U.N. adopted a resolution against executions for the first time last year, in
which Seoul also abstained.
Amnesty International, a non-governmental rights watchdog, conveyed its regret to
Seoul. The group classified South Korea as being abolitionist in practice in
December 1997.
"We had expected Korea to join in the moratorium resolution. Its decision is
regretful," Park Seung-ho of Amnesty's Korea office said.
Among those who opposed the moratorium on executions were North Korea, the United
States, Japan and China, while France, Germany, Britain and Canada all backed it.

The last execution in South Korea was carried out by the Kim Young-sam
administration in December 1997, when 23 people were put to death on the same day
just prior to the inauguration of a new government. Kim Young-sam was succeeded
by Kim Dae-jung, a former democracy activist who was once sentenced to death and
later received the Nobel Peace Prize.
A total of 58 inmates are currently on death row in South Korea.