Experts at the ruling Saenuri Party are calling for extremely tough punishment and extensive information disclosure of offenders to curb sex crimes.

A special panel recently submitted five bills that include toughened measures such as chemical castration. The party also proposed that convicted sex offenders have their residential addresses disclosed to the public.

The system would apply retroactively to all convicted of sex offenses since July 2000.

Also, the injection of drugs to restrain criminals’ sexual drive ― referred to as chemical castration ― would be applied to all sex offenders. The measure has so far only been restricted to crimes involving minors, aged 16 or younger.

The committee also suggested a revision of the criminal law, so that authorities would no longer need a victims’ report in order to indict the offender.

Rep. Kim Hee-jung, co-chair of the committee, added that the use of the electronic anklet should be applied to those convicted of burglary as well, as they often use sexual violence against their victims in order to keep them from reporting to the police.

The lawmakers admitted the measures fall short of preventing crime.

“Systems such as the personal information disclosure or electronic anklet are not criminal penalties but only supplementary measures,” said Rep. Kweon Seon-dong, fellow co-chair of the committee.

“We will seek to expand the range of these restrictions, in order to prevent potential second offenses without excessively infringing on the human rights of the offenders.”

Both lawmakers agreed that no probation or sentence commutation should be allowed when it comes to sex crimes.

“Considering that as many as 90 percent of sex violations go unreported, it is highly likely that one indicted for the charges would not be a first-time offender,” Kim said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Park In-sook, a doctor-turned-lawmaker, came up with sterner measures to root out repeated sex crimes.

Park submitted a bill earlier this month involving the surgical removal of serious sex offenders’ testicles.

The controversial suggestion, widely referred to as physical castration, once again raised human rights disputes, especially as its consequences are irreversible.

The lawmaker, however, argued that her bill was often misunderstood because of the intensity of the term.

“I am just suggesting that a surgical penalty should be included as one of the options, along with imprisonment and the death sentence,” she said.

“The system will be more effective than a chemical injection in lowering the second offense rates and will also fire a powerful warning shot to other potential offenders.”

The proportional lawmaker currently chairs the Korea Medical Women’s Association and was dean of Ulsan University’s medical school before she joined the political arena.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)