Yes, South Korea does have the death penalty. It sits at the top of the punishments listed in the Criminal Act, and courts still occasionally impose it. No one has actually been executed since December 1997, though, so the country is often described as abolitionist in practice rather than in law.
What the Law Says
Article 41 of the Criminal Act ranks capital punishment first among nine possible penalties, ahead of imprisonment with labor, imprisonment without labor, fines, and lesser sanctions.1Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Criminal Act Executions are carried out by hanging inside a correctional facility. Cases tried under the Military Criminal Act use a firing squad at a site chosen by the relevant military authority.2Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Military Criminal Act – Article 3
Which Crimes Can Carry a Death Sentence
Capital punishment is reserved for the gravest offenses. The core categories include:
- Insurrection. A ringleader of an insurrection aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order faces death, life imprisonment, or life imprisonment without labor. Those who plot, command, or carry out killings during an insurrection are also eligible for the death penalty.3Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Criminal Act – Article 87 Insurrection
- Murder. Killing another person carries death, indefinite imprisonment, or at least five years in prison. Killing a direct ancestor of oneself or one’s spouse raises the minimum to seven years.4Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Criminal Act – Article 250
- National security offenses. The National Security Act allows the death penalty for leading or organizing an anti-government organization and for espionage involving state or military secrets.5Statutes of the Republic of Korea. National Security Act – Chapter II Crimes and Punishment
Other capital-eligible offenses under the Criminal Act include conspiracy with a foreign country and robbery resulting in death. The National Security Act extends further, covering arson, kidnapping, and destruction of critical infrastructure when committed in service of an anti-government organization.5Statutes of the Republic of Korea. National Security Act – Chapter II Crimes and Punishment
The Moratorium Since 1997
The last executions in South Korea took place on December 30, 1997, when 23 prisoners were hanged. President Kim Dae-jung, who took office weeks later in February 1998, imposed an informal moratorium. Kim had himself been sentenced to death for sedition in 1980 before that sentence was commuted and he was eventually pardoned. Every administration since has continued the moratorium without writing it into law.
Courts have kept handing down death sentences during the moratorium, but rarely. The most recent one was imposed in 2016. Because no executions follow, these sentences function in practice as life imprisonment. At the end of 2024, 57 people remained on death row, including four held in military prison.
Prisoners are held in solitary confinement, and the moratorium is a political choice rather than a legal guarantee. In August 2023, the Minister of Justice ordered correctional facilities to inspect their execution chambers and confirm they were still operational. The order drew criticism from abolition advocates. No executions followed.
A Live Example: The Yoon Suk Yeol Case
How real the death penalty remains as a legal tool became clear in 2025. Former President Yoon Suk Yeol was charged with insurrection after declaring martial law on the night of December 3, 2024, in a televised address claiming anti-state forces had infiltrated the opposition. The National Assembly voted to lift the declaration within hours and impeached him on December 14. He was arrested the following month, the first sitting South Korean president to face criminal charges.
Under Article 87 of the Criminal Act, insurrection by a ringleader carries only two possible sentences: death or life imprisonment.3Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Criminal Act – Article 87 Insurrection Prosecutors asked for death. On February 19, 2026, the court found Yoon guilty and sentenced him to life in prison, citing his age and the fact that he had not used lethal force.
Constitutional Challenges
The Constitutional Court of Korea has been asked more than once to strike down the death penalty and has refused each time. It upheld capital punishment 7–2 in its first major ruling. In a second ruling on February 25, 2010, the margin narrowed to 5–4. That case was brought by a man convicted of killing four people who argued that capital punishment violated his constitutional right to dignity. The majority held that the penalty remained constitutional and said the choice between keeping and abolishing it belonged to the National Assembly, not the courts.
Why the Law Hasn’t Changed
Members of the National Assembly have introduced abolition bills repeatedly since 1999. At least ten have been proposed, some with substantial backing. A 2004 bill drew 175 co-sponsors and a 2015 bill had 172. None has passed. Every one has stalled in committee, and no administration has treated abolition as a legislative priority.
Public opinion is part of the reason. A January 2026 Realmeter poll, taken during the Yoon trial, found that 62.9% of respondents wanted to keep the death penalty and 31.9% wanted it abolished. In the same poll, 58.1% said the death penalty would be an appropriate sentence for Yoon specifically.
South Korea’s International Status
Amnesty International classifies South Korea as “abolitionist in practice,” a category for countries that keep the death penalty in law but have not executed anyone for at least ten years.6Amnesty International. Human Rights in South Korea The country has held that status since 2007, when the moratorium reached its tenth year.
South Korea ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1990.7Parliamentarians for Global Action. South Korea and the Death Penalty Article 6 of the covenant allows the death penalty only for “the most serious crimes.”8Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights South Korea has not ratified the covenant’s Second Optional Protocol, which would commit it to full abolition. That gap sums up the country’s position: unwilling to carry out executions, and equally unwilling to close the door on them.