The Democratic Party of Korea and the government are pushing to establish a Real Estate Supervisory Service under the Office for Government Policy Coordination to exclusively handle illegal real estate activities. They plan to introduce related bills this month to build a system for constant, specialized responses to real estate crimes.
Park Soo-hyun, chief spokesperson of the Democratic Party of Korea, said at a briefing on the results of the sixth high-level party-government meeting on the 8th, "The party and the government decided to swiftly establish the Real Estate Supervisory Service to exclusively respond to illegal activities in the real estate market to normalize the market."
The Real Estate Supervisory Service will be set up as a body under the Office for Government Policy Coordination. Targeting violations of laws related to real estate that arise across multiple ministries, specialized personnel will directly conduct investigations and probes based on information provided by relevant agencies.
To that end, the Democratic Party plans to introduce this month a bill to enact the Act on the Establishment and Operation of the Real Estate Supervisory Service, along with related amendments to grant judicial police authority to personnel affiliated with the service.
As for the initially watched issue of easing regulations on large retailers' online dawn delivery, they decided to pursue complementary measures in parallel in light of small-business owners' opposition. To ensure the sustainable development of the retail industry, they also plan to prepare a comprehensive package that includes win-win measures for large and small businesses.
Park, the chief spokesperson, said, "We agreed to push to revise the Distribution Industry Development Act to match the rapidly changing retail environment, including the expansion of online sales," adding, "To minimize confusion in implementation and to protect and nurture traditional markets and neighborhood commercial districts, we will quickly prepare competitiveness-enhancing measures that include win-win plans with the participation of both online and offline retail companies and small-business groups."
The current Distribution Industry Development Act restricts large retailers' business operations from midnight to 10 a.m. Coupang, which recently suffered a large-scale personal data leak, offers dawn delivery, but critics said large retailers face reverse discrimination in online delivery due to these regulations.
The meeting also focused on pushing a special law to manage strategic investments between Korea and the United States. Park, the chief spokesperson, said, "Starting on the 9th, the party will operate a special committee for one month to process a special law on investment in the United States, aiming for passage of the bill in March through an agreement between the ruling and opposition parties," adding, "The government also conveyed its intention to strengthen consultations and communication with the United States from the perspective of the national interest and to cooperate on legislation."
In addition, the party and the government selected a total of 129 bills as priorities for passage in the February National Assembly session and decided to speed up legislation. The Child Allowance Act, the Essential Medical Care Act, the Personal Information Protection Act, and the Jeonse Fraud Victim Protection Act were included.
The Democratic Party plans to prioritize livelihood-related bills at the plenary session on the 12th. Park, the chief spokesperson, said, "We aim to handle follow-up legislation on prosecution reform and bills on judicial reform after the Lunar New Year."