The Prime Minister's Office recently issued guidance to all ministries to set up a "national normalization task force (TF)," according to reports on the 17th. A Prime Minister's Office official said the intent was to "find and fix abnormal and wrong practices, such as illegal platforms in valleys," adding, "It means each ministry should identify tasks on its own."
This is seen as a follow-up measure to President Lee Jae-myung's directive at a Cabinet meeting on Mar. early, when he said, "Consider forming something like a National Normalization Committee or a type of team, and discuss selecting key tasks by ministry and pursuing them comprehensively for the 'normalization of the abnormal' project." The removal of illegal platforms in valleys was also carried out when Lee was governor of Gyeonggi Province.
Under the Prime Minister's Office guidance, all ministries will have to form public-private TFs of around 10 members. They will select improvement tasks by early next month and report to the president in June. The Democratic Party of Korea also plans to form a "normalization of the abnormal TF" to coordinate on legislative and budget tasks.
The guidance from the Prime Minister's Office is also said to include examples of national normalization tasks. Cases where exploiting exceptions in the system is a problem include high-priced textbook fees, abusing farmland speculation as a means of speculation, and the abuse of the comprehensive wage system. In addition, cases where systems lack rationality or are becoming dead letters—such as bans on pets entering restaurants and research funding support—may also be targets for normalizing state affairs.
In addition, cases where systems exist but are not enforced, allowing illegal acts to generate profits, may also be included as targets for normalization. These include unauthorized occupation of state-owned property, illicit gains obtained through allocated tariff benefits, ticket scalping using macros, fake ambulances, using home-sharing, and illegal subletting of public rental housing.
Along with this, cases that diverge from the general public's sentiments or legal sensibilities—such as recognizing socially controversial figures as persons of merit and officetel management systems that pass costs on to tenants—may also be targets for normalization.
In addition, in recent public appearances, President Lee identified jeonse fraud, real estate speculation, illegal valleys, stock manipulation, voice phishing, drug crimes, public office corruption, large and malicious tax delinquencies, and serious industrial accidents as "abnormal."
Some ministries have already begun normalizing state affairs. The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL), Ministry of Health and Welfare, Military Manpower Administration, and Nuclear Safety and Security Commission recently opened a "public proposals for normalization tasks" portal on their websites, saying they would "fix abnormal practices and systems, entrenched illegalities, and expedient acts." The Korea Customs Service also formed a "tariff administration normalization project task unit." Major ministries such as the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Ministry of Planning and Budget have recently been working internally to appoint ministers and Vice Ministers as TF heads and recruit members.
Reactions within the civil service vary. A government official said, "We agree with the intent to correct unreasonable practices, but from a ministry's standpoint, it is not easy to judge what to regard as 'abnormal' and put forward as a task." Another official noted, "There are considerable concerns that, depending on a particular administration's policy direction, certain issues could be arbitrarily classified as abnormal tasks."