President Lee’s justice ministry will tolerate no illegal strikes and demonstrations:
Linking economic growth with respect for law and order, the Ministry of Justice vowed yesterday to show “zero tolerance” to illegal strikers and demonstrators.
In a briefing to President Lee Myung-bak about his agenda for the year, Justice Minister Kim Kyung-hwan said the ministry will focus on illegal collective actions by unions and will punish those responsible.
“Economic development is possible only when law and order are respected, but until now, law and order have been ignored in our society,” Kim said. “From now on, law enforcement will not be swayed by public sentiment or unreasonable demands.”
The Ministry is considering a sophisticated blend of economic penalties and skull-cracking:
Lee said too many people accept illegal shortcuts when a group makes demands. “The Justice Ministry should play a key role in correcting such thinking,” he added.
According to Kim, the ministry will seek to revise the legal code to allow courts to award civil damages at the same time as criminal penalties for an illegal strike. The ministry said the change is intended to help employers speed up claims for losses incurred by illegal job actions.
Kim said instigators and masterminds of violent, illegal demonstrations and strikes will be sternly punished. He said the Justice Ministry will guarantee law enforcement authorities a wide range of means to stop such rallies.
Hopefully the “wide range of means” won’t include kidnapping unionists.
Anyway, good luck with that.
Along with the “get tough” measures, the Justice Ministry also announced it would make it easier for foreigners —with money — to come and live in Korea. From the unlinkable Korea Herald:
From September this year, the ministry will issue permanent-residence visas to qualified foreign professionals and investors.
Foreign nationals with special job skills in various areas, including science, education, culture and athletics, can apply for the visa from Korean embassies in their countries. Business professionals with plans to invest over $500,000 - a drop from the current $2 million - are also eligible for the visa.
Currently, only foreign nationals who meet various requirements, including several years of residing in Korea, are eligible for the visa. To ease worker shortage in provincial industrial complexes, the ministry is planning to reduce the required length of stay for workers from the current 10 years to five, beginning December 2008.
This is nice, though:
From July, the ministry also plans to issue visas for job-seekers with work experience in world-renowned multinationals or degrees from globally recognized universities.
The companies and schools must be among the world’s top 300 and 200, respectively, as listed by professional rating organizations such as Fortune, the Times of London and Newsweek.
The visa will be valid for six months, but can be extended upon request if legitimate reasons are given. Currently, anyone wishing to come to Korea for education or work is required to have an official invitation from the school or employer.
Foreign professionals will be allowed to switch jobs within the same industry from December this year. Currently, anyone who wants to move jobs is required to get permission from the government, a measure favored by local employers who fear high turnover rates. The ministry said it will further discuss the measure with local companies to stave off expected problems such as an increase in wage costs.
Interestingly, the ministry will also run Korean language and culture courses from January 2009; if you pass the course and are seeking Korean citizenship, you won’t have to take the naturalization exam.
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Looks like one step forward, two steps back. From the unlinkable Herald:
“The government will introduce a set of measures this year to help companies protect themselves from hostile takeover bids, the Justice Ministry said yesterday.”
Yes, we wouldn’t want those pesky shareholders fighting for non-felons to run companies or trying to end the practice of supporting zombie affiliates, would we?
What worries me about MB Lee’s spot-on initiatives is focus on governance while ignoring his party’s politics appears to be making him vulnerable to attack from the National Assembly.
His apparent neglect for GNP politics is creating a new, potentially powerful antagonist force come next month’s elections with the formation of a new party consisting of former GNP politicians.
The so-called Lefties are on the ropes, but they could cynically make a come back by pairing up with the disaffected Madam Park supporters on the Right. Politics makes for strange bedfellows (you may quote me…)
If these two groups get the radical unions behind them, MB may have a real mess on his hands as he tries to straighten out the Korean economy.
Korea has yet to complete the move to party politics from essentially personality-centric power blocks.
I can only wish MB well as he really has his work cut out for him.
Magazines. They’re basing national policy on magazines. Magazines are professional rating organizations now?
Sure. We should make national policy out of the Fortune 500 and US News & World Report.
Korean law firms, at least, obsess over trivial differences in “quality” of a US lawyer’s law school of origin when hiring foreign legal consultants. Pity the poor fool who applies for a job at a big Korean law firm as a graduate of a third- or fourth-tier American law school (one of the bottom 125 schools).