The Democratic Party of Korea said on the 30th that it is "preparing alternative legislation led by the Ministry of Justice" in connection with easing the breach of trust offense under the Criminal Act, and plans to announce related details at a future party-government consultation.
Kwon Chil-seung, Director General of the Democratic Party's "task force on rationalizing economic criminal punishment and civil liability," said at the party-government consultation on "rationalizing economic criminal punishment, phase two" held at the National Assembly on the morning of the day, "(Regarding easing the breach of trust offense) we are currently preparing an alternative bill led by the Ministry of Justice."
The party and government agreed to announce the details of the alternative legislation to ease the breach of trust offense at the third party-government consultation in the future. Kwon said, "We received a report on practical matters regarding the (breach of trust offense)," adding, "At the next party-government consultation, it was discussed that we would be able to announce the progress related to the breach of trust offense."
At the first meeting on "rationalizing economic criminal punishment" on Sept. 30, the party and government said they "set the abolition of the breach of trust offense as the basic direction." Since then, led by the Ministry of Justice and others, they have been conducting "typification" work to categorize types of breach-of-trust-related crimes to prepare alternative legislation.
On this, Kwon said, "Regarding the breach of trust offense, issues such as business judgment and the abolition of the breach of trust offense under the Commercial Act are matters for which the opposition has also submitted bills. We believe there are no major differences between the ruling and opposition parties or socially," adding, "The next stage is a major undertaking, and it is taking time, so we have not yet produced a final version." It is known that, instead of revising each individual statute containing the breach of trust offense one by one, the party and government are also reviewing a plan to establish a special act encompassing all types of breach-of-trust-related crimes.
Oh Ki-hyeong, a Commissioner on the task force, said, "It's not about completely eliminating the breach of trust offense, but about enacting alternative legislation," adding, "Experts are currently reviewing it. We believe that once things are organized to a certain extent behind the scenes, the social debate can proceed in concrete terms, and we are continuing to prepare."
Meanwhile, following the first consultation in which the party and government overhauled 110 provisions for "rationalizing economic criminal punishment," they additionally revised 331 provisions through the second consultation on the day. They identified improvement tasks focusing on ▲ strengthening monetary accountability ▲ easing business owners' criminal risk ▲ easing burdens on the livelihood economy.
Kwon said, "If they are streamlined in the form of bills by each standing committee going forward, there will be related debates and legislative procedures in the committees," adding, "We do not expect the 331 improvement plans to be major points of contention or disagreement between the ruling and opposition parties, so we expect bipartisan agreement to be much easier than on other agenda items."