Maternity Leave for Government Officials Will Be Applied to Mothers with 3 Year Old Baby

The Government Administration and Home Affairs Committee decided to revise the government official law to extend the age of baby that the mother may apply for the maternity leave to 3 from current 1.

The Committee also allowed the government officials to leave for three years to be employed temporarily in a private business for the purpose of learning new management technology. In addition, foreigners may be employed as government officials in the areas of research, education, technology, excluding the national security, policy making, and the exercise of national authority.

The Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly passed the revised the Immigration law that strengthens the punishment of the agents who illegally invite foreigners and smuggle them into the country to 10 million won penalty or up to 3 years of imprisonment or incarceration.

According to the revised bill, the foreigners who illegally enter the country may be expelled from the country. Since it has not been legislated until now, the illegal immigrants have been punished by less than 500,000 won fine by the forgery of public or private documents.

The revised bill also strengthens the human rights of refugees by extending the application period from 60 days to 1 year since the entry into the country.

The Judiciary Committee also approved the bill that regulates the suspension of the wiretapping in 36 hours if the related organization did not obtain the warrant from the court.

The Congress also decided to make a new bill, "special measurement law for the improvement of small and medium business structures and the reactivation of traditional markets." which regulates the expansion of the floor space index from current 250 percent to 400-700 percent, equal to the standard of residential areas, when traditional markets are re-constructed.

Meanwhile, `Special Law for Cheju Development` which allows no VISA entry of tourists from 17 nations including Vietnam, Mongolia, Philippine, India, was also approved by the Construction and Transportation Committee.

Yoon Jong-Koo jkmas@donga.com