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Opinion on the Partial Amendment to the Military Penal Code [2008] KRNHRC 32 (3 December 2008)

On December 3, 2008, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National
Assembly asked the Commission to review the Partial Amendment to the Military Penal
Code that the administration submitted to the National Assembly on November 28, 2008.
The Commission found that clauses on the murder of a senior officer did not fully
reflect the rulings of the Constitutional Court. It also discovered that as the punishment of
the murder of a military guard, which had been controversial as it was too excessive, was
not adjusted and that the proposed revision might violate the rights to life and equality of
soldiers and the responsibility theory, one of the legalist principles for the Constitution.
Therefore, the Commission presented the Chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary
Committee of the National Assembly the opinion that the legal punishment of the murder
of a senior officer and the murder of a guard should be further broken down, considering
the motive for the crime and behavioral action, and that "the capital punishment" should be
excluded in peacetime.