The government has chosen to examine all 11,165 administrative penalty regulations that impose criminal penalties on citizens for breaches of administrative laws, including the Building Act and the Food Sanitation Act, considering these punishments too severe when the infractions do not constitute criminal offenses under the Criminal Act.
On July 30, the government revealed the formation of a “cross-government task force for streamlining penalties,” which includes the Ministry of Government Legislation, Ministry of Finance and Economy, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The group aims to carry out a complete review of administrative penalty regulations and create a “comprehensive guideline for streamlining penalties.” Using this guideline, it will suggest reducing excessively severe penalties and substituting some with financial penalties like fines or additional charges. Since most penalty provisions require changes in legislation, the government plans to prepare revisions to hundreds of laws based on the task force’s suggestions.
For years, economic experts have contended that South Korea’s business regulations excessively limit commercial operations through the heavy use of criminal punishments. A 2025 study conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries revealed that 346 laws associated with business activities impose criminal consequences for 8,403 different offenses. In reaction, the Lee Jae Myung administration designated “rationalizing economic penalties” as a national priority, promising to move away from punishment-focused measures toward civil responsibility.
However, the Ministry of Government Legislation stated that streamlining penalties does not automatically imply reducing punishments. Last year, a task force for rationalizing economic penalties under the Ministry of Finance and Economy suggested a substantial decrease in administrative fines within the economic sector. Nevertheless, in April, President Lee Jae Myung, upon reviewing the proposal, remarked, “If a criminal fine of 5 million Korean won is substituted with a non-punitive surcharge, the amount should be raised to 50 million, 100 million Korean won, or even higher.”
As a result, the government chose to begin the evaluation of administrative fines anew. The Ministry of Government Legislation remarked, “We aim to reduce overly harsh administrative penalties that affect individuals and companies, while maintaining strict consequences for crimes that are widely condemned.”
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