President Moon Jae-in said Monday it is important to collect sufficient public views before revising the law on juvenile crimes, after increasingly loud calls for tougher punishment in the wake of a series of brutal peer violence cases.

Recent weeks have seen a spike in calls for rewriting a set of legal codes that give young criminals impunity or limit their punishment amid public uproar over shocking cases of violence committed by teenagers against their peers.

During a meeting with senior secretaries, Moon said that the online petition site of the presidential office received a petition with about 260,000 signatures calling for a revision of the law to strengthen punishment for juvenile crimes.
 
Moon said wide-ranging discussions are necessary, such as what part of the law should be revised and how, as well as whether it is appropriate to do so. He also said that ministers in charge of social affairs should take up the issue.

"Even if it is discussed in a social affairs ministers' meeting, we also need to collect sufficient views from the public," Moon said.

The president also said that the case should serve as an opportunity to discuss ways to end school violence.

Juvenile crimes drew keen public attention recently as video footage went viral of a middle school girl bleeding profusely after being attacked by a group of her friends in the southern port city of Busan.

Public outrage further escalated as another high school girl was found to have been assaulted by her peers in the eastern seaside city of Gangneung in July. (Yonhap)