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By Nam Hyun-woo
The government is moving to legalize private detectives and other currently outlawed occupations as part of steps to meet its stated goal of achieving a 70 percent employment rate. However, the possibility and practicality of the plan has been called into question.
Prime Minister Chung Hong-won disclosed a roadmap aimed at creating 480,000 jobs every year for the next five years following President Park Geun-hye's pledge to add as many jobs as possible.
In the roadmap, the government urged the creation of new occupations and new industries as a major driving force to achieving the objective -- focusing on private investigators, tattooist artists and chiropractors.
The three occupations are recognized as legal occupation in most developed nations, but illegal in Korea.
According to the roadmap, there are 11,000 types of occupations in Korea, compared to 30,000 in the United States and 17,000 in Japan. The government sees the relatively lower figure as a potential for creating jobs.
As private investigative services are unlawful here, errand services are illegally broadening to the investigative sector. That was followed by a string of side effects such as secret private investigating or other extreme measures such as contract killings.
In the light of these, the police have been urging the National Assembly to pass a pending bill to pave the way for the legalization of the services of private investigators.
"Korea is the sole member of the OECD without a private investigation system, while the number of civil cases exceed the police's investigative capacity," said Ha Geum-seok, head of the Korea Association of Private Investigation.
A group of lawyers are however opposed to the proposal. They argue that private agencies might abuse their semi-administrative power such as infringing on human rights.
There are some 2,400 people who are reportedly active as private investigators.
Being a tattoo artist is also an unlawful occupation here because since tattooing in Korea often involves anesthesia which is considered a medical procedure restricted to on licensed medical personnel.
However, as tattooing is considered a trendy fashion by many youngsters, the number of people having tattoos has increased and the call for its legalization has also been growing.
In the same way there is reluctance to recognize chiropractic care as a legitimate health services. Chiropractic is a complementary and alternative treatment focusing on nutrition healing and prevention of disorders rather than orthodox medicine. Most people who seek chiropractic care do so for lower back pain.
Chiropractors practice in over 100 countries in all regions of the world, but local doctors and pharmacists argue that the treatment was granted for authorized doctors and the safety and effectiveness of it is not proven yet.
"Spine treatment requires very sophisticated medical knowledge about the spine, which is the very pillar of our body. Treatments by unauthorized people are not recommended," said a neurosurgeon at a local teaching hospital asking not to be named.
According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, it will thoroughly consider lifting the ban on the regulations that prohibit these occupations through its task force team specialized on "finding new occupations which do not exist in the country."
The ministry has been operating the team since April.
"We are looking to add as many jobs as possible to increase the employment rate to 70 percent," a ministry official said.
Meanwhile, the government said it also plans to introduce national certification systems for new occupations such as veterinary nurses and genetic counselors in a bid to add new occupations to the job market.
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