South Korea court upholds death penalty

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's highest court upheld the death penalty on Thursday, 13 years after the last execution and a national debate on whether to scrap capital punishment led to a moratorium.

The Justice Department has put a stay on death row cases since 23 were executed at the end of 1997, in deference to a parlimentary debate on the statutory repeal of capital punishment that began formally earlier that year.