By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
Married immigrants who are not fluent in Korean will be able to take national technical qualification tests in a wider range of foreign languages, and North Korean refugees will get a 50 percent discount on driving school fees.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Safety introduced a package of programs to ease difficulties facing foreigners during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. To be affected are married immigrants, migrant workers and North Korean refugees.
The measures were drawn up on the basis of complaints from foreigners and will go into effect after related procedures are completed.
For married immigrants not fluent in Korean, some national qualification tests ― such as those for hair styling and baking ― will be administered in foreign languages on a trial basis from next year.
The application forms for driver's license tests will be offered in Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai. The tests are currently available in English, Japanese and Chinese.
From July, those of multicultural families will be allowed to apply to enter the country's mandatory army service together with friends, as a measure to ease their transition to the military.
For North Korean refugees, driving institutes will offer a 50 percent reduction on fees, as many may need a driver's licenses to make a living.
Under the current Employment Permit System, foreign workers become illegal immigrants when their labor contracts expire, leaving them with little time to switch to a new workplace. The new bill allows 30 days to find a new workplace after the contract expires.
"We expect the measures to help multicultural families live more comfortably in Korea," a ministry official said.