New Towns, Job Creation, and Overuse of Election Kindness

In the National Assembly government question session held on February 18, the government’s generous policy coinciding with the April election was criticized.

“Generous policies, such as the Ministry of Finance and Economy’s plan to create 80,000 new jobs, and the Ministry of Construction and Transportation’s announcement that it will construct 50 new metropolitan towns are flooding in,” said GNP member, Lee Jae-chang. “I doubt whether they considered the reality of these plans, like funding problems, before announcing their will.”

Millennium Democratic Party member Lee Hee-gyu criticized the government’s empty national land building plans and the recent repeated announcement of the policy against unemployment without consulting the rest of the government.

United Liberal Democrats member Ahn Dae-ryoon commented, “The government is actually increasing youth unemployment by extending the retirement age and curtailing the term of military service. However, they are also announcing the spending of 25 billion won on the army, resulting in an ironic policy due to overuse of kind policies.”

The Uri Party’s Kim Duk-bae said, “Increasing the number of civil workers is not only against the government’s strategy of aiming for small government, but also heightens the wall of administrative regulation. Rather than creating jobs randomly, they should aim first for the stability of working hours and the strengthening of job education.”

Prime Minister Goh Kun refuted these arguments by saying, “We recently ordered a clear policy and administration so that there are no misunderstandings. The Government has actually implemented unpopular policies such as increasing the national pension share.”

4. Six-Digit PIN Numbers for Bank and Credit Cards to Be Implemented This April

The current four-digit personal identification numbers of bank and credit cards will be changed to six-digit numbers starting this April. Moreover, for the first time, an inspection of the financial management network of foreign financial companies that are in operation within our country will be carried out.

It was reported on February 18 that, in order to enhance the safety of electronic banking, the Financial Supervisory Service will replace current magnetic stripe bank and credit cards with IC cards that have integration built in starting this April. Customers issued a new card should use a six-digit personal identification number, and existing customers will have to change their personal identification numbers to six-digits when they renew their cards at their expiration.

The general manager of the IT division at the Financial Supervisory Service, Kim Yong-bum, explained, “A case of duplicating cards is frequent because of easy surreptitious use of personal information for magnetic cards, and discovering four-digit personal identification numbers is not that hard if you stare at or attempt to put the date of the cardholder’s birthday. Thus, we decided to introduce IC cards and add more digits to personal identification numbers in order to prevent illegal usage by others”.

In order to prevent leakage of customer information, the Financial Supervisory Service is scheduled to inspect both the foreign IT divisions for five domestic financial companies, including four banks and one insurance company, and the financial management network of two foreign financial companies that are conducting business in our country. If they find a problem, they will expand the number of targets for inspection.

Seung-Heon Lee ddr@donga.com