South Korea | Prosecutors seek death penalty for teacher who killed 1st grader

According to the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes under South Korean law, the murder of a child under the age of 13 after abduction or enticement is punishable by death or life imprisonment.

SEOUL – Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for a teacher accused of stabbing a first grader to death at an elementary school in Daejeon this year.

During a hearing at the Daejeon District Court, prosecutors argued that Myeong Jae-wan, the 48-year-old elementary school teacher, should face capital punishment for the murder of the student, Kim Ha-neul, on Feb. 10.

“The victim’s family has pleaded for the harshest punishment,” said prosecutors Monday. Prosecutors also stated that while Myeong has submitted “dozens of letters of remorse” in reflection of her actions, she still showed “no genuine remorse during the investigation stage.”

Since being indicted, Myeong reportedly submitted 86 handwritten letters of remorse to the court and a professional psychiatric evaluation of herself, leading to speculation that her lawyers may claim diminished responsibility for the crime.

Article 10 of the Criminal Act absolves the legal liability of those who are unable to control their actions due to mental illness.

Myeong’s psychiatric evaluation concluded that Myeong may have been in a diminished mental state during the crime. It was also reported that Myeong had been treated for depression for up to eight years before the murder and had taken six months of leave for mental health reasons until December 2024.

However, prosecutors have said they do not believe Myeong’s crime can be entirely put down to her mental health, due to her deliberate preparations beforehand, including researching information related to murder before committing the crime.

Myeong, who worked as a teacher at Kim’s school, is accused of luring Kim into a separate classroom after her after-school program ended and fatally stabbing Kim with a knife she had purchased in advance.

Kim was later pronounced dead after being transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.

The Daejeon Office of Education dismissed Myeong and stripped her of her teaching qualifications in April.

The court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Myeong on Oct. 20.

Source: asianews.network, Staff, September 23, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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