Corruption in South Korea is moderate compared to most countries in the

Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacifi ...

and the broader international community.

Transparency International Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civ ...

's 2021

Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entru ...

scored South Korea at 54 on a scale between 0 (very corrupt) and 100 (least corrupt). When the 180 countries in the Index are ranked by score, South Korea is the 32nd least corrupt country, following the Bahamas, Qatar and Portugal.

Notable cases

President

Park Geun-hye Park Geun-hye (; ; often in English ; born 2 February 1952) is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, until she was impeached and convicted on related corruption charges. Park was the fir ...

was found guilty in 16 charges, including

abuse of power Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

and

bribery Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Co ...

, then she was imprisoned for 25 years. Another former president

Lee Myung-bak Lee Myung-bak (; ; ; born 19 December 1941) is a South Korean businessman and politician who served as the 10th president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. Before his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and the m ...

was also charged with corruption scandals involving major companies in 2018 and he was sentenced 17 years in jail. KOCIS Korea President Park Sejong Econ 03 (11640577615)

KOCIS Korea President Park Sejong Econ 03 (11640577615)

As a result of such scandals, coupled with other incidents, such as the Sewol disaster, a 2015 report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that " lmost 70 percent of South Koreans distrust their government, while less than 30 percent of them are confident in the nation's judicial system." This rate is significantly lower than the OECD average, which was 41.8 percent. Despite South Korea's low public confidence rate in 2015, it was at least a step up from the rate in 2007 by 10 percentage points. The

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

has taken steps to fight corruption, such as the Act on the Protection of Public Interest Whistle-Blowers which protect

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

s who report public and private corruption as well as foreign bribery. Public services have also been digitalised in order to avoid opportunities for corruption. However, large ''

chaebol A chaebol (, ; ) is a large industrial South Korean conglomerate run and controlled by an individual or family. A chaebol often consists of multiple diversified affiliates, controlled by a person or group whose power over the group often exc ...

s'' pose significant difficulties as illicit business behaviour is still common among them. Some of the large conglomerates have been involved in

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the ta ...

and corruption, and their powerful role in South Korea's economy has made corruption investigation very difficult.

Notable incidents

* 2008 Grand National Party Convention bribery incident * Anti-corruption agency * BBK stock price manipulation incident * Daewoo dissolution and corruption scandal * Improper Solicitation and Graft Act * MOFAT Diamond scandal * 2016 South Korean political scandal * South Korean illegal surveillance incident * South Korean nuclear scandal * Gwangju Inhwa School * Jeon-gwan ye-u

References

External links

The Republic of Korea Corruption Profile
from the Business Anti-Corruption Portal {{Asia in topic, Corruption in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

Notable cases

Notable incidents

See also

References

External links