President Lee approves draft FTA with Malaysia, consular agreement with Mongolia at Cabinet meeting

[Financial News] A draft free trade agreement (FTA) between South Korea and Malaysia and a draft consular agreement with Mongolia were approved at the 48th Cabinet meeting, chaired by President Lee Jae-myung at the Blue House on the 10th.
According to the Blue House that day, the draft FTA between South Korea and Malaysia includes provisions to expand trade and investment between the two countries and broaden access to their services markets. The draft consular agreement between South Korea and Mongolia was drawn up to protect the rights and interests of each country’s nationals residing in the other country and strengthen consular cooperation between the two countries.
The Cabinet also approved a revised motion to extend the Cheonghae Unit’s deployment, expanding its area of operation from its existing waters in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia to offshore waters south of Oman. A motion to extend the deployment of the Akh Unit, which supports the training of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) armed forces, also passed.
A revised enforcement decree specifying the measures that information and communications service providers must take was also approved ahead of the amended Suicide Prevention Act taking effect on the 12th. The amendment provides for blocking and deleting suicide-inducing information, as well as restricting searches for it and its transmission between users. The results of these measures must be submitted electronically to the Minister of Health and Welfare within 30 days after the end of the relevant quarter.
Price standards were also established for supplying profit-sharing housing for sale as in-kind compensation in public housing districts, including areas with concentrations of tiny single-room dwellings. Public housing project operators will set the supply price in consultation with landowners and other property owners, within a range of 50% to 80% of the sale price calculated to reflect total project costs, compensation and expected sales revenue, among other factors.
Amendments to the Enforcement Decree of the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, allowing agents to apply for state compensation for vaccine-related injuries, were also approved, as was a plan to spend 33.339 billion won from the general reserve fund on three items, including personnel costs related to the National Tax Service’s organizational restructuring.
However, the draft promulgation measure for the “Special Counsel Act on Fabricated Prosecutions” was not placed on the agenda that day. The Blue House said the previous day that it planned to put the measure on the agenda at next week’s Cabinet meeting. The Blue House explained, “The draft promulgation measure for the Special Counsel Act on Fabricated Prosecutions was transmitted from the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 6th, after plans for the Cabinet meeting had already been finalized,” adding, “We decide when to place it on the Cabinet meeting agenda after considering when it was transmitted and how urgent it is.”
[email protected] Seong Seok-woo Reporter