More Cuts in Retirement Pay for Corrupt Government Officials

Government officials who get fired, fined, or whose work licenses are suspended in the wake of money-related corruptions such as bribery will not receive 25 percent of their retirement allowances.

On January 28, the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and the Uri Party had a consultative meeting and decided to submit a revised bill of the Government Employees Pension Law in the special session of the National Assembly in February.

Up until now, only government officials who receive sentences heavier than incarceration or dismissal have seen a 50 percent reduction in their retirement allowances, while those who are fined or released from office (not dismissed) or whose licenses are suspended as a result of corruption have been eligible for the total sum of their retirement money.

The newly formulated measure will apply only to officials who are involved in corruption and will not include faults at work or drunken driving.

The government and the ruling Uri Party also agreed to cut 10 to 50 percent of the pension for corrupt government workers if they, after retirement, get employed or run their own businesses and earn income more than the monthly salary of average workers (2.201 million won as of October 2004.)

Alongside this, they decided to revise the special law on five provinces of North Korea in February to exclude from the tasks of the Committee on the North Korean Five Provinces: instillation of anticommunist ideas, promotion of national policies, operation of pacification activities, and thought guidance.

They instead included realistic tasks of the committee: investigation of the condition of defectors from the North’s five provinces and their support systems, aid for North Korean defectors from the five provinces and related groups, nurturing of the next generations, and succession and development of the regions’ culture.

The government and the party will introduce the plural deputy minister system to the Ministries of Finance and Economy, Foreign Affairs, Government Administration and Home Affairs, and Commerce, Industry, and Energy. They also decided to confirm and proceed the revised bill of the Government Structure Law in the Assembly’s special session in February. According to the revised bill, the Ministry of Gender Equality will be changed into the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and the Ministry of Construction and Transportation into and the Ministry of Land and Transportation.

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com