Assemblyman Kim Hoe-jae Selected as 'Outstanding Legislator'

Cookie News 'Second Yoon Chang-ho Act' Passed, Legislator Selected as Outstanding Lawmaker

Assemblyman Kim Hoe-jae: "I will continue to do my best for public welfare reform"

Kim Hoe-jae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Yeosu-si Eul, Jeollanam-do), was recognized for his outstanding legislative activities and selected as one of the ‘2023 Outstanding Legislators’ by Cookie News.

The ‘2023 Outstanding Legislators’ selected by Cookie News is an award given to members of the National Assembly who have made legislative efforts for social issues, the vulnerable, and the future among the 300 members of the National Assembly.

[Photo by Kim Hoe-jae]

The selection criteria include the expertise of the bill, its impact, relevance to people’s livelihood, and presentation of future vision.

Representative Kim was selected as a ‘2023 Outstanding Legislator’ for proposing the ‘Second Yoon Chang-ho Act.’

The ‘Partial Amendment to the Road Traffic Act,’ commonly known as the ‘Second Yoon Chang-ho Act,’ which Kim proposed as the main sponsor and passed the National Assembly plenary session in December last year, established the foundation for strengthening the punishment of habitual drunk driving, considering that drunk driving is a serious crime that destroys families.

In fact, from 2019 to 2021, there were about 162,000 habitual drunk drivers.

Among them, 29,192 were repeat offenders within one year, and 74,913 had drunk driving offenses three times or more.

The late Yoon Chang-ho was serving in KATUSA and was on leave in 2018 when he was hit by a drunk driving vehicle while standing at a crosswalk early in the morning, fell below the railing, and died in November of the same year.

At that time, public opinion grew stronger to strengthen punishments for drunk driving.

Accordingly, the so-called ‘Yoon Chang-ho Act,’ which strengthens punishments for drunk driving, was enacted and implemented, but in 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled it unconstitutional based on the ‘principle of proportionality between responsibility and punishment.’

In response, Representative Kim proposed a bill to strengthen the punishment of habitual drunk drivers by supplementing the content of ‘aggravated punishment according to the recidivism period and frequency.’ The National Assembly set a time limit between the previous and subsequent offenses and specified the starting point for recidivism, passing the ‘Second Yoon Chang-ho Act.’

Kim Hoe-jae said, “I am very pleased to receive this meaningful award recognizing my legislative activities for reforming people’s livelihood,” and added, “I will do my best to resolve practical legislative tasks for reforming people’s livelihood.”

He continued, “I will also devote myself to legislative activities to overcome the crisis facing South Korea’s economic recession and to protect the people’s economy,” and said, “I will repay the people with humble legislative activities that listen to the voices of the citizens.”