Please understand the tone of this editorial.
Korea, a country labeled as governance backward, is barely escaping this label through a revision of the Commercial Law. And Korea was subject to discounts.
If we abolish the crime of embezzlement and exclude it from criminal law and replace it with civil law, who will bear the burden of unfair market disruption not only by large corporations' chaebols but also by ordinary managers? If you do a civil lawsuit, you will only be fined at a similar level. Who will fear the law and take responsibility for management?
Moreover, in a situation where the president himself is under pressure from the embezzlement charges against him, this is a reckless act. While it may not be desirable for the state to legally punish the abuse of corporate management, this is at least a necessary device in Korea's backward corporate governance. Therefore, abolishing it is an absurd regression and self-contradiction. Doesn't it contradict the Commercial Law?
We have analyzed the scenario of abolishing the crime of embezzlement before. However, alternative legislation for the abolition of embezzlement is not easy to create, and even if it is created, new precedents and implementation errors will take a very long time. The Democratic Party should immediately stop this work. And they must first present alternative legislation and eliminate the gap through simultaneous legislation. This is a natural course of action considering political pressure.
Anyway, in Korea's stock market where supply and demand have disappeared and market function itself has been lost, this is another misfortune. Governance regression has been proven to add an additional discount of up to 10% based on past cases of IBs.
https://ccej.or.kr/posts/3wtXbDb
The Democratic Party and Lee Jae-myung are urged to immediately stop the attempt to abolish the crime of embezzlement, first present an alternative legislation, and proceed with simultaneous legislation after obtaining the consent of the people.
