President Lee: "Criminal punishment is being overused, blurring the line with moral standards... It must be restrained as a last resort"

According to Financial News, President Lee Jae-myung on the 14th addressed the criminal punishment system, stating, "Criminal punishment has been used so excessively that the standards for morality and for criminal sanctions can no longer be distinguished. The principle of legality in criminal law has in effect collapsed," stressing that reforms are needed.
Lee made these remarks at Cheong Wa Dae while presiding over a meeting of the State Council of South Korea and the Emergency Economic Review Meeting, after receiving a report from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Ministry of Finance and Economy on a "plan to rationalize criminal penalties."
He particularly noted, "Because so many matters can be punished with criminal penalties, the power of the prosecution service and every investigation agency has grown excessively, to the point where there are even criticisms that the country has effectively become a 'prosecutors' state.' Some have gone so far as to use judicial power as a tool for politics." He went on, "Regulations are too vague, they are interpreted expansively, and even manipulated. As a result, our society has lost clear standards. It has become a most primitive and unpredictable society."
Lee added, "It is clear that, in the legislative process as well as in the judicial and administrative processes, we have been moving too much in a direction that suppresses the people."
He continued, "A fundamental principle of criminal law is that even if ten criminals escape, there must not be a single person who is wrongfully punished. Yet now the thinking seems to be that not even one offender should slip through, so what does it matter if ten people are treated unjustly? The logic has been completely inverted." He emphasized, "Criminal punishment must be strictly reserved as a necessary last resort."
Lee also remarked, "In the past, because our economy was so weak, fines and other economic sanctions may not have been very effective, so criminal penalties were often used instead. Now, however, we live in an era when economic sanctions can in fact have a much greater impact."
cjk@fnnews.com Reporter Choi Jong-geun Reporter