Lee Orders 'Confiscation' of Hoarded Goods: "Amend Laws if Needed, Take a Practical Approach"

President Lee Presides Over Cabinet Meeting
"Earn 3 Billion Won, Pay 100 Million in Fines, Executives Take the Fall... Is That Really a Deterrent?"

On May 6, President Lee Jae-myung instructed authorities to "simply confiscate" items such as syringes that are being hoarded, even if this disrupts market order and ties up supplies, as concerns mount over the supply of related goods due to the prolonged Middle East war.

President Lee Jae-myung is listening to the Ministry of Economy and Finance's report on emergency national operations and response status related to the Middle East war at the Cabinet Meeting and Emergency Economic Inspection Meeting held at the Blue House on the 6th. Photo by Yonhap News

Presiding over the Cabinet Meeting and Emergency Economic Inspection Meeting at the Blue House on this day, President Lee said, "If it is possible, create an enforcement decree. If that is absolutely impossible, amend the law to do so," emphasizing his directive.

Previously, the Ministry of Economy and Finance began a ban on hoarding from April 14 to address instability in the supply of medical products caused by the Middle East war. Subsequently, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety detected a distributor that supplied an excessive amount of syringes to the same buyer. In response, the Ministry of Health and Welfare conducted emergency on-site inspections of 23 medical institutions suspected of purchasing excessive quantities of syringes from this distributor, with the inspections running until May 7.

President Lee pointed out, "Isn’t the act of hoarding all about making money?" He continued, "What’s the point of prosecution and punishment? If someone makes 3 billion won by hoarding, gets fined 100 million won, and the CEO or a manager takes the fall, does it actually penalize the chairman who profits?" He expressed that the current penalties are not effective. President Lee added, "We need to take a practical approach. Isn’t that why we have confiscation provisions? If confiscating these items causes problems in the market due to their disappearance, we should amend the legal procedures to quickly liquidate the confiscated goods on a temporary basis."

He further instructed, "Amend the law so that confiscation related to hoarding is treated as a special provision, allowing the government to immediately dispose of the goods as an agent or put them back on the market for sale, and then later recover the equivalent value."

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