'Prevention Measures for the Geomjeong Gomu-shin Incident' to be Discussed in the Plenary Session

Plenary Session at 2 PM to Handle Over 50 Bills
Vote on Criminal Law Amendment for 'Maximum Death Penalty' in Infant Murder and Abandonment Cases
Focus on Adoption of Confirmation Report for Supreme Court Nominee Kwon Young-jun

The so-called "Gomusin Incident Prevention Act," which involves creating and distributing the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's "standard contract" for the publishing sector, will be brought to the plenary session on the 18th. A revision to the Criminal Act that strengthens the sentences for infant murder and abandonment to the level of general murder and abandonment is also awaiting a vote in the plenary session.

On the 18th, the National Assembly will hold a plenary session to handle about 50 items, including the amendment to the "Publishing Culture Industry Promotion Act" proposed by Kim Yoon-duk of the Democratic Party of Korea.

Kim's amendment to the Publishing Culture Industry Promotion Act is a bill that provides the basis for the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to establish and distribute a standard contract related to publishing. The Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, which reviewed the bill, evaluated it as "a law prepared to prevent unnecessary disputes by having publishing authors and publishers use the same standard contract and to establish a fair publishing culture ecosystem."

On the 30th, the National Assembly plenary session is handling the referral status of the 'Yellow Envelope Act' (Amendment to the Labor Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act). Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

So far, the publishing industry has experienced conflicts due to copyright-related controversies. It is known that Lee Woo-young, the late author of Gomusin who passed away in March this year, also faced difficulties due to copyright lawsuits and ultimately took an extreme step. A representative from Kim's office stated, "In the publishing sector, since a proper standard contract has not been established, problems such as unfair trade have occurred, leading to copyright issues like those with Gomusin," and added, "If the law passes, authors' copyrights will be better protected."

Additionally, the plenary session will handle a revision to the Criminal Act that punishes infant murder or abandonment equally to general murder and abandonment, amending the previous law that mitigated sentences for such cases. An amendment to the Emergency Medical Services Act, which imposes reporting obligations on heads of emergency medical institutions when emergency medical services are obstructed, will also be brought to the plenary session.

Attention is also focused on whether the appointment consent bill for Supreme Court Justice nominee Kwon Young-jun, whose appointment consent has been deferred along with nominee Seo Kyung-hwan whose confirmation report has been adopted, will pass. During his tenure as a professor, nominee Kwon earned 1.8 billion KRW through legal opinions provided to law firms. In a statement the day before, nominee Kwon expressed his intention to donate the income to society, withdraw submitted opinions on ongoing lawsuits, and recuse himself from cases involving law firms to which he provided advice.

A lawmaker from an opposition party who raised concerns about nominee Kwon's high remuneration said, "The nominee is making considerable efforts to rectify the situation, so there is a possibility that the confirmation report will be adopted," and added, "We will discuss this with other members at the Personnel Hearing Special Committee this afternoon."

Meanwhile, the ruling and opposition parties have agreed to extend the July extraordinary session until the 28th. Considering that the Administrative Safety Committee and the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee were unable to properly hold standing committee meetings due to recent flood damage, they plan to hold the Legislative and Judiciary Committee on the 26th after reviewing bills, and then process the bills at the plenary session on the 27th.

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