The Democratic Party of Korea is accelerating the abolition of the crime of breach of trust. The ruling party, which has been hastily processing legislation that burdens corporations, such as the Yellow Envelope Law and stricter Commercial Law, appears to be handing corporations the carrot of abolishing the crime of breach of trust.
The Democratic Party of Korea held a launch ceremony for a task force to rationalize economic punishments and civil liabilities in the National Assembly on 2nd. Representative Kwon Chil-seung was appointed Director General of the task force, with Representatives O Gi-hyung, Kim Gi-pyo, Choi Gi-sang, Kim Nam-gun, and Heo Young participating. Outside members include lawyers Ham Sang-wan and Jin Eul-jong as legal experts.
The Democratic Party of Korea is pushing for the abolition of the crime of breach of trust to reduce the management burden on corporations and enhance economic vitality. It seems that they will prepare concrete measures for the abolition of the crime of breach of trust in conjunction with the task force operated at the government level.
Representative Kwon Chil-seung, who serves as the Director General of the task force, said, "Korea has an unusually high number of provisions related to economic punishments" and "It is time to remove outdated regulations and revise them into reasonable systems that fit current realities." Kwon noted, "There have been criticisms that some punitive regulations, including the crime of breach of trust, stifle normal management judgments," adding, "We will also revise punitive regulations that impose excessive burdens on the people's economy."
Commissioner O Gi-hyung stated that he aims to achieve a certain level of results during this regular National Assembly session. O said, "We need to strengthen civil liability while rationalizing criminal liability."
The task force has set a goal to rationalize economic punishments to ensure that there is no stifling of normal corporate management activities. Instead, the civil liability system will be strengthened to substantially guarantee the rights of victims. The task force proposed specific agendas including reviewing economic punishments, improving excessive punitive regulations for minor legal violations by small businesses and self-employed individuals, a Korean-style discovery system, a punitive damages system, and the introduction of a class action system.
To this end, during September, they plan to gather opinions from economic organizations, consumer and investor groups, and small business owners to select priority review tasks and derive policy ideas. After the first meeting of the task force, Kwon met with reporters and stated, "The crime of breach of trust under the Commercial Law is practically moribund, so there was no disagreement that it should be abolished," adding, "There is a consensus that the application scope of the crime of breach of trust under the Criminal Law should also be slimmed down, but deep research is necessary on how to change it."
Kim Byung-ki, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, also expressed his intention to prioritize the abolition of the crime of breach of trust over the third amendment to the Commercial Law during a press conference on that day. Kim stated, "The crime of breach of trust does not align with global trends and should be abolished," adding, "We will decisively conclude this without dividing it into phases two and three."