The Democratic Party of Korea, which wrested the chairmanship of the National Assembly's National Policy Committee from the People Power Party in the second half of the 22nd National Assembly, has decided to accelerate the processing of bills for the Lee Jae-myung administration's key policy tasks, including the establishment of a property supervision agency.
The government, which is moving to stabilize real estate prices through a tax reform plan in July, is known to have requested the establishment of a property supervision agency that can scrutinize every instance of speculative transactions through special judicial police officers. In addition, the committee has set a policy to complete legislation this year on a "stock price suppression prevention act" for capital market reform and a microfinance support agency act for expanding policy loans to low-credit borrowers.
According to the Democratic Party on Sunday, the National Policy Committee and the party's K-Capital Market Special Committee held meetings and selected a total of nine bills as major legislative tasks for the second half, including the establishment of a property supervision agency. One committee member said, "At the lawmakers' workshop, the establishment of the property supervision agency requested by the government was selected as a legislative task for the second half."
The property supervision agency act, which has already been proposed and is pending before the committee, centers on establishing a property supervision agency under the Office of the Prime Minister. The agency would crack down on violations of 26 real estate-related laws, including illegal resale, fraudulent subscriptions, and price manipulation. It is designed to grant special judicial police authority to its staff, allowing them to directly conduct compulsory investigations such as searches, seizures, and arrests. It also includes strong investigative powers, such as reviewing credit information like financial transaction records and loan status without a warrant, conducting on-site inspections, and even seizing ledgers and documents. If the property supervision agency is launched alongside the tax reform plan, it is expected to send a strong message to the market regarding price stability.
The Democratic Party also plans to swiftly process amendments to the Capital Markets Act, including the stock price suppression prevention act, in the National Assembly by the end of this year. The stock price suppression prevention act, proposed by Rep. Kim Hyun-jung, is a bill that requires listed companies whose price-to-book ratio (PBR) has recorded 1.0 for two consecutive years to mandatorily disclose measures to boost their stock prices. In addition, amendments to the Capital Markets Act—including the introduction of a mandatory tender offer system to protect shareholders during mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and priority allocation of new shares to general shareholders of the parent company during physical divisions—are also to be processed within the second half of this year. Rep. Park Sang-hyuk, elected as the party's floor secretary, attended the K-Capital Market Special Committee that day and said, "In the case of the Capital Markets Act, there are bills that need to be handled urgently," adding, "We will enact the bills discussed at the K-Capital Market Special Committee through the National Policy Committee."
The microfinance support act, a key task of the Lee Jae-myung administration, which emphasizes "inclusive finance," was also selected as a major legislative task. The microfinance support act is a bill to establish a microfinance stability fund to expand policy loans for low-credit borrowers, such as Sunshine Loans. A committee official explained, "The Korea Inclusive Finance Agency handles policy loans, but there have been points raised about insufficient stability of financial resources and flexibility of supply," adding, "If the microfinance stability fund is established, stable supply of policy loan products will become possible."
The Online Platform Act, which regulates online platform operators such as Coupang, is also set to be intensively reviewed in the National Assembly in the second half. The Democratic Party had halted discussions on the Online Platform Act, judging that a sanctions bill against Coupang—which is backed by the U.S. Congress—could lead to trade friction, but it is known to be pushing ahead again. Rep. Park said, "The U.S. House Judiciary Committee published a distorted report relying solely on Coupang's one-sided, self-serving statements without any objective verification of facts, causing many citizens to worry," adding, "Coupang cannot reign above the Republic of Korea's judicial system. I ask for bipartisan cooperation to protect the judicial sovereignty and national interests of the Republic of Korea."
In addition, the committee plans to push for a hearing on the Homeplus case, whose rehabilitation proceedings were terminated by the court. Rep. Min Byoung-dug of the Democratic Party argued, "This is not simply a corporate failure, but a typical livelihood disaster caused by predatory private equity funds that acquire companies with large borrowings, leave behind only an empty shell, and then 'grab and run,'" adding, "We must thoroughly investigate MBK's predatory financial techniques and suspicions of Capital Markets Act violations." However, since the People Power Party is not participating in the committee, whether the ruling party will hold the hearing on its own remains uncertain.
In addition, the National Policy Committee and the K-Capital Market Special Committee decided to strengthen monitoring of single-stock leverage ETFs on Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS), into which investment funds are flowing excessively. Rep. Oh Ki-hyoung, chairman of the special committee, explained, "If necessary measures are needed, I wonder whether we should present a direction while communicating with the market, but for now it is a situation to watch."
