Serial killer death row inmate Yoo Young-cheol transferred to Seoul Detention Center with execution chamber

Yoo Young-chul, a "serial killer" who was sentenced to death for murdering 21 elderly people and women and is currently detained without execution, has been transferred to Seoul Detention Center.

Yu Young-chul at the site verification in Hwanghwak-dong, July 2004 / Photo by Yonhap News

According to the legal community on the 25th, the Ministry of Justice correctional authorities moved Yoo Young-chul from Daegu Prison to Seoul Detention Center last week. Jeong Hyeong-gu, who was sentenced to death for shooting a newlywed couple in the car with a shotgun because they overtook his vehicle, was also transferred to Seoul Detention Center.

This has drawn attention as the serial killers will serve their sentences together at Seoul Detention Center. Kang Ho-soon and Jeong Doo-young are also living as death row inmates without execution at Seoul Detention Center.

Some in the legal community analyze that this transfer measure may be with the intention of carrying out the death penalty. Seoul Detention Center has an execution chamber installed.

South Korea has not carried out any executions since December 30, 1997, when 23 death sentences were executed, and is classified as a "de facto abolitionist country." Meanwhile, last month, Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon ordered inspections of four correctional institutions equipped with execution facilities, including Seoul Detention Center, Busan Detention Center, Daegu Prison, and Daejeon Prison, attracting attention. Currently, Seoul Detention Center is known to be the only place with practically usable facilities. Executions are carried out in the execution chambers of correctional facilities.

Regarding this, a Ministry of Justice official only stated that it is a "necessary measure for correctional administration." Daegu Prison is scheduled to be relocated elsewhere soon.

Under Minister Han's directive, the Ministry of Justice also investigated whether the victims' families of Yoo Young-chul and Kang Ho-soon have been properly compensated by the perpetrators. During the Lee Myung-bak administration, then Minister of Justice Lee Gui-nam ordered a plan to concentrate violent criminals at Gyeongbuk Northern Prison (formerly Cheongsong Prison) and install execution facilities, but the plan was eventually scrapped.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.