The Korea Development Bank (KDB), which has faced workplace harassment cases this year, was belatedly found to have received recommendations in last year's external human rights assessment to improve its victim relief procedures. Despite such calls for improvement, KDB has yet to take corrective action, raising concerns that it is handling human rights issues merely as a formality.
According to the office of Rep. Lee In-young of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's National Policy Committee, on the 6th, KDB received such recommendations in its "2025 Human Rights Impact Assessment" conducted through the Korean Standards Association from September to November last year. The human rights impact assessment is a procedure that reviews human rights risks for executives and employees based on human rights implementation principles presented by the United Nations and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, as well as public institution manuals.
The Korean Standards Association recommended that KDB strengthen the transparency of its human rights relief procedures, stating that "victims and whistleblowers of human rights violations must be able to predict the situation and outcome without fear of secondary harm and receive fair relief." While KDB operates a human rights violation reporting channel on its website, it only provides guidance on how to file reports, lacking detailed information on processing criteria, step-by-step deadlines for receipt and investigation, and protection measures.
The Korean Standards Association said, "There is a risk that victims may hesitate to report or give up midway due to concerns about secondary harm," and called for clarifying processing principles, confidentiality guarantees, and measures to prevent secondary harm.
However, KDB has yet to revamp its reporting page. Although the bank spent 13.4 million won ($9,700) on external consulting to enhance its human rights capacity, the actual improvement work has been slow. This contrasts with its online anti-corruption reporting channel, which provides guidance on processing standards, guidelines for protecting whistleblowers, and key reporting cases.
Critics also point out that KDB has been neglecting human rights issues. In February, top management became embroiled in a secondary victimization controversy after making several phone calls to a workplace harassment victim.
