South Korea is a de facto abolitionist state, having carried out its last execution in 1997. One death sentence was handed out in 2018 and 61 individuals remained on death row.

A bill abolishing the death penalty was introduced to Parliament in 2015 but failed to pass. While South Korea has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1990, it has yet to ratify its Second Optional Protocol aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (ICCPR-OP2).