On January 15, 2007, the Ministry of Finance and Economy submitted the proposed Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism Act (" Bill" ) to the Finance and Economy Committee of the National Assembly. In response to the ministry" s request to examine the Bill, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) expressed its opinion that " the necessity of legislation to domestically implement the " International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism" such as the Bill may be acknowledged within the minimum extent, but it is not desirable to define acts subject to the Bill as " terrorism" (Article 2 of the Bill) in a situation where the concept of " terrorism" has not been established under international and domestic laws. Besides, it is advisable to partially modify and supplement those provisions on exceptions from the definition of terrorism (proviso of Subparagraph 1, Article 2 of the Bill), designation of persons involved in terrorism (Article 4) and punishment (Article 13) in line with the protection of human rights."
The Bill was proposed in order to implement the ‘International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism’ ratified by the Perublic of Korea on February 17, 2004. The Bill contains the definition of terrorism, stipulates designation of persons involved in terrorism, orders the freezing of terrorist financing, and provides for punishment against terrorist financing. It was submitted to the National Assembly" s Finance and Economy Committee on January 15, 2007.
The Bill defines terrorism by enumerating certain forms of violent acts (murder, serious injury, kidnapping, hijacking or seajacking, car bombing by explosives or biochemical substances, nuclear reactor destruction, etc.) according to the annex to the ‘International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism’; provides that certain individuals, corporations, or organizations shall be designated and announced as parties involved in terrorism and all of their financial transactions shall be prohibited when they are deemed involved in terrorism; stipulates that the minister of finance and economy may freeze any funds pertinent to terrorism for up to a year if the head of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit discovers financial transactions suspected of being related with terrorism and notifies the minister of such transactions; and provides that any person who raises, provides, transports, stores, solicits, or requests any fund or property with the knowledge that it would be used for terrorism shall be sentenced to imprisonment of up to 10 years or a fine of up to KRW 100 million and that any person guilty of such attempt act be punished as well.
Based on its determination that the Bill threatens fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution, the NHRCK reviewed the Bill to determine whether it was adequate in terms of human rights protection. Such review was based on the Constitution, International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, the NHRCK" s expressed opinion on the ‘Prevention of Terrorism Act’ on February 22, 2002, and the FATF" s additional special recommendations on terrorist financing.
