Ruling Party and Government Push to Ease Economic Penalties for Companies... Decriminalization and Sentencing Rationalization

Minor Violations of Administrative Duties and Orders to Be Guided by Administrative Sanctions Rather Than Criminal Punishment

Seong Il-jong, Chairman of the Policy Committee of the People Power Party, is delivering opening remarks at the Regulatory Innovation Party-Government Council held at the National Assembly on the 5th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporters Bomryeong Geum, Hyunji Kwon] The People Power Party and the government have decided to ease economic penalties to facilitate smooth corporate activities. The core is to grant freedom to companies, focusing on decriminalizing economic penalties and rationalizing sentencing.

Seong Il-jong, chairman of the People Power Party's Policy Committee, stated at the party-government meeting held at the National Assembly on the 5th, "In the future, for minor administrative duties or order violations occurring during corporate activities, it is preferable for the government to guide through administrative sanctions rather than impose penalties."

Priority will be given to preparing improvement plans focusing on provisions where urgent improvements are needed but the infringement of legal interests caused by violations is low. For example, if pollutants are illegally discharged causing death or injury, under Article 3, Paragraph 2 of the Environmental Crime Control Act, life imprisonment or imprisonment for more than five years is imposed. However, while maintaining the existing statutory penalty for death, the statutory penalty for injury will be lowered to life imprisonment or imprisonment for more than three years. When constructing a logistics terminal without obtaining construction approval or change approval, imprisonment for up to one year or a fine of up to 10 million won is imposed, but a method to achieve legislative purposes through license cancellation may be introduced. An attendee at the party-government meeting explained, "It is not finalized, but it means that improvements will be made in this direction in the long term."

In particular, considerations will be made as to whether domestic penalty levels are excessive compared to overseas cases, whether legislative objectives can be achieved through administrative sanctions, whether there is equity with other legal provisions with similar legislative purposes, whether the penalties are necessary and minimal in the private autonomy domain, and whether criminal punishment is unnecessary due to changes in the times.

Opinions on the punishment of corporate CEOs were also expressed. Yoon Chang-hyun, a member of the People Power Party, told Asia Economy in a phone interview, "If you combine the punishment regulations for CEOs in our country, there are about 2,500, and simply summing the sentences amounts to about 6,200 years, which is considered excessive, and mentioned adjusting the sentencing," adding, "The government side also said they would reflect this."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.