Most S. Koreans in favor of death penalty: poll

SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Yonhap) -- More than six out of every 10 South Koreans are in favor of maintaining capital punishment, a survey showed Saturday, reflecting growing calls to resume executions since the arrest of an alleged serial murderer.

In a recent Hankook Research poll conducted on 3,000 people over the age of 19,
at the request of the Ministry of Justice, 64 percent of respondents said they
were in favor of the death penalty, the ministry said.
A little over 18 percent of those surveyed said they were against it while 17.3
percent remained undecided, according to the poll.
The arrest of alleged serial killer Kang Ho-sun, who confessed last month to
having killed eight women over the past four years, has rekindled the
decades-long debate on the use of the death penalty in the country.
South Korea has had a de facto moratorium on capital punishment since 1997. There
are still 58 inmates on death row in the country.
Amid the heated controversy, the Constitutional Court is expected to decide
whether capital punishment is constitutional within this year. The high court
ruled in 1996 that the penalty was acceptable in Korean society.
"We've conducted the poll to see the flow of public opinion in the midst of
lively debate over the death penalty since the arrest of Kang Ho-sun," the
ministry said.