S Korea mulls law against abuses after ‘nut rage’

Resentment has mounted so much in South Korea against what has come to be known as “gabjil”, high-handedness by the rich and powerful, that parliamentarians are proposing legislation to punish some of the worst abuses.

A bill to be presented in the national assembly this month is formally called the “Conglomerates Ethical Management Special Law” but has been nicknamed the Cho Hyun-ah law.

Cho, also known as Heather Cho, is the daughter of the chairman of Korean Air Lines and was sentenced last week to a year in prison for an outburst on a Korean Air plane while on the ground in New York.

The bill proposes to ban members of the powerful business families known as chaebol from working at their companies for at least five years if convicted of a crime.

Cho, who has appealed her sentence, was Korean Air’s head of in-flight service at the time of the December 5 episode, which has come to be called the “nut rage” case. A court found she had violated the law by ordering the plane she was in to return to the gate after it started to taxi.

Cho had demanded the flight crew chief be expelled from the flight after she was served macadamia nuts in a bag, and not on a dish.

“I hope the recent case involving Cho has created the right environment to pull together consensus on this,” said ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Kim Yong-nam, the sponsor of the bill. Another parliamentarian from an opposition party has proposed an amendment along similar lines.

“There have been calls to put in place a systematic tool to police heavy-handedness by chaebol family members, and stop them from being able to participate in management just because they are relatives,” Kim said in an interview.

Cho’s lawyer Suh Chang-hee declined to comment on the proposed legislation.

It is not clear whether the legislation will be approved by a parliament controlled by the business-friendly Saenuri Party.