Over 150 lifers paroled in a decade, 95% for violent crimes — reoffending goes untracked

More than 150 inmates serving life sentences were granted parole over the past decade, with nine out of 10 having committed violent crimes — yet the Ministry of Justice does not track whether any of them reoffend, drawing calls to abolish parole for lifers altogether.

Data obtained from the Ministry of Justice by the office of Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Seo Young-gyo, a member of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, show that 151 inmates serving life sentences were granted parole between 2017 and September this year.

By crime type, 144 inmates — fully 95 percent of the total — had committed violent offenses including murder, robbery-murder, patricide or matricide, and rape-murder. The remaining cases included five convictions for robbery resulting in death and one each for attempted robbery-murder and attempted murder.

The annual breakdown was 11 in 2017, 40 in 2018, 14 in 2019, 18 in 2020, 17 in 2021, 16 in 2022, 12 in 2023, one in 2024 and nine in 2025.

So far this year, 13 inmates had been granted parole as of September — all 13 convicted of murder.

The legal basis for paroling violent lifers is Article 72 of the Criminal Act.

Under that provision, even an inmate sentenced to life imprisonment becomes eligible for parole after serving at least 20 years, provided certain conditions are met.

The problem, critics say, is that while a significant number of violent offenders have been released on parole, the Ministry of Justice keeps no separate record of whether they go on to reoffend.

"There is no separate data on reoffending by paroled lifers — we only compile the overall reincarceration rate for all parolees," a ministry official said.

Reincarceration rates for all parolees submitted by the ministry to Seo's office were 7.3 percent in 2018, 6.8 percent in 2019, 6.2 percent in 2020, 5.9 percent in 2021 and 7.4 percent in 2022.

South Korea has not carried out an execution in 30 years, since 23 people — including members of the Jijonpa criminal gang — were put to death on Dec. 30, 1997, in the final year of President Kim Young-sam's administration. A string of violent crimes in recent years, including a mother-in-law killing and wife abduction in Songpa-gu, Seoul, and an indiscriminate knife rampage in Incheon, has renewed calls for the introduction of a true life sentence with no possibility of parole.

In a recent case, the 13th Criminal Division of the Gwangju District Court, which sentenced Jang Yun-gi to life imprisonment for the murder of a high school girl, stated that "the only way to offer even a measure of comfort to the victim and her bereaved family, and to prevent the recurrence of similar crimes, is to never allow parole for the defendant as long as he lives and to carry out the life sentence in full."

Similarly, the appellate court that sentenced Kim Tae-hyeon — accused of killing three women, a mother and her two daughters, in Nowon-gu, Seoul, in 2021 — to life imprisonment said parole "must not be permitted."

To address the limits of the current criminal justice framework, Seo introduced a bill in September 2024 to amend the Criminal Act and establish a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

"Serious violent crimes must be met with correspondingly severe punishment," Seo said. "Criminals whose offenses are heinous and who show little prospect of rehabilitation or reform need to be permanently removed from society."