Nine convicted murderers were executed in Seoul and Taegu prisons on 29 December 1992. They were the first executions since December 1991. Some 50 prisoners are under death sentence in South Korea, mostly convicted of rape, murder and robbery. AI is concerned about the increased number of death sentences imposed since 1990, when the government launched a “war against crime”. AI has written to the Minister of Justice and also asked President-elect Kim Young-sam to commute all death sentences as part of the large-scale amnesty he has promised to mark his inauguration.
