Gov't targets pay transparency in job ads, everyday abuses in reform push

The government will seek to promote pay transparency in job ads, crack down on illegal street structures and root out the practice of disguising imported goods as locally made or laundering their country of origin as part of its "nation normalization project," officials said Tuesday.

The prime minister's office announced a second batch of 30 tasks to tackle under the normalization project, launched after President Lee Jae Myung ordered in March the correction of abnormal practices and systems and deep-rooted illegal and illicit acts to improve people's everyday lives.

Since then, the government has identified the first batch of 164 tasks, including adjusting speed limits in school zones, standardizing beach umbrella fees, improving the opaque management system of studio apartments and banning the illegal use of the Onnuri gift certificates the government issues to revitalize traditional markets.

The additional 30 tasks announced Tuesday were selected from about 200 suggestions with a focus on resolving everyday public grievances, including preventing local council members from taking junkets, cracking down on corruption in construction bidding and preventing those convicted of domestic violence from abusing legal proceedings to track down victims' addresses.

Also included are expanding nondisclosure agreements to prevent tech theft disguised as business negotiations, allowing "white hackers" to discover and report security flaws in good faith, and strengthening consumer protection responsibilities for platforms.

"We should continue to identify and rectify unreasonable practices and gaps in our systems that have long been overlooked simply because that is how things have always been done," Lim Ki-keun, minister for government policy coordination, said. "The government will take full responsibility for carrying these tasks out."

Yonhap