The most recent executions in South Korea occurred in December 1997, when 23 inmates were executed on short notice on the same day. In a similar grouping of executions, 19 occurred in 1995 and 15 in 1994, with each group of executions occurring on the same day. No executions have occurred since 1998; however, this de facto suspension of executions is not based in law or a stated formal policy. Since 1999, legislators have three times proposed legislation that would replace capital punishment with life in prison without parole, but each time the legislation has stalled. In order to make official the de facto suspension of executions in South Korea, proponents of the abolition of capital punishment must develop a culturally appropriate proabolition argument that will persuade the Korean public of capital punishment's irreversibility, which risks putting to death innocent persons. This reality was evident on January 21, 2007, when the Korean Court acquitted eight persons who had been executed 32 years earlier (the Inhyeokdang case). 1 figure, 12 tables, 39 notes, and 35 references