"We will consider adopting various systems, including chemical castration of sexual offenders against children," Cho Yong-soo, a ministry official in charge of crime prevention, said in a report to the parliament.
The proposed bill on chemical castration is pending in parliament as there was criticism over the effectiveness and safety of using hormonal medicine to curb sex predators' sexual desire and heavy budget needed for implementation.
Last week, ministers of home affairs and gender equality had expressed their support for adopting chemical castration.
The Justice Ministry also said it will review plans to introduce the new detention system to keep chronic sex offenders in jail even after they have served their full sentences.
The so-called "preventive detention of convicted criminals" system was introduced here in 1980, but was abolished in 2005 due to criticism that it violated human rights. Rights activists had also attacked the extra detention system as violating the Constitution, which bans double punishment for the same crime.
The latest remarks follow a string of brutal child sex crimes committed by convicted sex offenders, despite the government's countermeasures recently enforced to combat repeated sexual assaults against minors.//Yonhap
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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