SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) -- The National Assembly's security and public administration committee passed a set of bills related to April's ferry sinking Friday, including one designed to sever cozy ties between regulators and businesses, a practice believed to have contributed to sloppy safety checks on the ill-fated ferry.
The 6,825-ton Sewol sank off the country's southwest coast on April 16, leaving more than 300 people dead or missing. Most of the victims were high school students on a field trip to the southern resort island of Jeju.
The tragedy prompted soul-searching in South Korea, where government officials have often taken jobs related to their duties after retirement, sometimes fostering cozy ties between regulators and businesses.
Such ties among the "bureaucratic mafia" were blamed for lax safety checks on the Sewol, which was found to have been carrying too much cargo and remodeled beyond its safety limits.
One of the bills passed through the parliamentary committee Friday calls for restricting public officials' re-employment for three years after retirement and punishing violations of that law with up to two years in prison or up to 20 million won (US$18,200) in fines, among other measures.
The new measures are tougher versions of existing measures under current laws.
The other bills lay out the duties of the chief of a new ministry to be tasked with overseeing disaster management and designate April 16 as National Safety Day in memory of those who died in the tragedy.
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