▲ Kwon Chil-seung, chair of the Democratic Party of Korea's policy committee, on the 17th called for measures on the government's comprehensive farmland audit, saying authorities "must make every effort to ensure that law-abiding farmers and citizens never suffer unnecessary harm." The remarks came as officials moved to contain fear spreading through rural areas that landowners caught leasing out their fields in violation of the principle that farmland must be tilled by its owner would be forced to sell the land. Options under review include guaranteeing tenant farmers three years of cultivation even on farmland subject to forced disposal. The number of landowners too old to farm their own plots is rising sharply, yet the government tightened penalties for violating the Farmland Act first and is now patching up afterward — inflicting the wound and then offering the cure.
▲ Health and Welfare Minister Jung Eun-kyeong said on the 17th, regarding the introduction of the abortion pill Mifegyne, that "doctors will not be punished simply for prescribing it," adding that the government "will fully reflect physicians' right to choose based on religious beliefs and other grounds." The government decided the previous day to permit Mifegyne in the first quarter of next year, on the condition that it be used within nine weeks of pregnancy. Medical groups are calling for revisions to the Criminal Act and the Mother and Child Health Act concerning abortion to remove legal uncertainty. Strengthening women's right to self-determination is the right policy direction, but procedural legitimacy should not be skipped along the way.
