Key Activities B. Recommendation for Political Freedom of Public Officials and Teachers On February 25, the Commission expressed an opinion to the Chairman of the National Assembly on the need to amend the State Public Officials Act and other relevant laws so that the basic political rights of public officials and teachers as citizens can be guaranteed as long as they don’t harm the political neutrality requirement in the workplace. It also recommended the Minister of Personnel Management, Minister of the Interior and Safety, Minister of Education, and the chairperson of the National Election Commission to amend the provisions in the relevant laws and regulations, and the lower statutes to the effect that they don’t excessively limit the political freedom that public officials and teachers have as citizens. Public officials and teachers are officers with a public duty, but they are also citizens with basic rights and the freedom of expression. With respect to public sector employees and the freedom of political communication, the United States and some OECD nations except Japan broadly allow public officials to engage in political activities. Even if someone in his or her capacity as a public official makes a political expression, the general view is that restricting political communication by public officials is a matter that must be dealt with with great prudence. In Korea, political expressions by public officials are rigorously and extensively regulated. Even political expressions made by a person in his or her capacity as a citizen, and not as a public official, irrespective of his or her job, are restricted. Considering the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and ruling by the Constitutional Court, the scope and degree of restriction should be determined based on the correlation with the principle of political neutrality, and limitations on freedom of expression should be applied with a very high degree of clarity and the principle of proportionality should be complied with in a strict sense. Nevertheless, the current State Public Officials Act and its provisions, which limit personal and collective political communication, can be problematic in that they violate the non-delegation doctrine and the principle of proportionality with regards to the individual freedom of political expression, and violate the purpose specification principle and the principle of proportionality with regards to collective freedom of expression. 32