Gov't to enact law prohibiting sex offenders from living close to schools

National 13:41 January 26, 2023

SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Yonhap) -- The government plans to enact a law prohibiting sex offenders at high risk of reoffending from living close to kindergartens or schools, the justice ministry said Thursday.

The ministry plans to submit a revision to the Act on Electronic Monitoring to the National Assembly for approval in May, the ministry said in its 2023 policy plans submitted to President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Under the planned revision, sex offenders who are discharged from prison and at high risk of recommitting sexual crimes will be prohibited from living within an up to 500-meter radius of child care centers, kindergartens or schools from the elementary to high school levels.

Sex offenders to be subject to the revision will be limited to those who committed sexual crimes repeatedly or against children under age 13.

The revision plan comes after a series of local communities strongly protested and demonstrated against notorious child rapists' moves to settle in their neighborhoods after being released from prison.

The justice ministry will also push to launch an independent administrative organ in charge of immigration policies and issues in the first half of this year.

Once in operation, the immigration agency will serve as a control tower in charge of immigration policies and harnessing the growing immigrant workforce here at a time the country is coping with record-low birth rates and the fast-aging population, the ministry said.