Korea Adds 30 Reform Tasks on Pay Transparency and Consumer Protection
The Korean government has added 30 measures to its nation normalization project, targeting opaque job advertisements, construction bidding corruption, technology theft and recurring public grievances.
South Korea’s government has unveiled 30 additional reform tasks aimed at correcting practices that officials say create everyday inconvenience, obscure accountability or leave openings for abuse. The new package puts pay transparency in recruitment alongside measures covering consumer protection, public procurement, technology security and the safety of domestic violence victims.
Under the plan, the government will seek to make compensation information more transparent in job advertisements. It will also target illegal structures on streets and strengthen enforcement against imported products falsely presented as domestically made, including schemes that disguise or launder a product’s country of origin.
The package forms the second group of tasks under the government’s “nation normalization project.” President Lee Jae Myung ordered the initiative in March to address entrenched illegal practices and systems considered unreasonable or poorly suited to daily life. The government had previously identified 164 tasks.
Earlier measures included reviewing speed limits in school zones, standardizing beach umbrella fees, improving oversight of studio apartment management and preventing illegal use of Onnuri gift certificates. Those certificates are issued to support spending at traditional markets.
Officials said the latest 30 items were selected from about 200 proposals and were chosen with public grievances in mind. They include preventing local council members from taking improper junkets and cracking down on corruption in construction bidding. Another measure is intended to stop people convicted of domestic violence from misusing legal procedures to locate victims’ addresses.
The government also plans to widen the use of nondisclosure agreements to reduce the risk of technology theft conducted under the guise of business negotiations. It intends to create clearer protections for ethical security researchers, often called white-hat hackers, who discover and report vulnerabilities in good faith. Online platforms would face stronger consumer protection responsibilities under another task in the package.
Lim Ki-keun, minister for government policy coordination, said authorities should continue finding and correcting practices and regulatory gaps that have persisted largely because they were treated as customary. He said the government would take responsibility for carrying out the measures.
The breadth of the package means implementation will likely involve multiple ministries and local authorities. Its impact will ultimately depend on how the individual tasks are translated into enforceable rules, administrative guidance and oversight. For job seekers and consumers, the most visible tests will be whether employers disclose pay more clearly, platforms provide stronger safeguards and authorities consistently act against deceptive trade practices.