Both Political Circles and Society Showing Lame Duck Phenomenon

On the night of Oct. 12, streets at Shinchon in northern Seoul, in front of Yonsei University are bright studded with neon signs of stores and restaurants. In the 200- meter district at a two-lane road to Ewha Womans University, there are signs saying “No Parking” every 20 meters. But the street is packed with illegally parked cars. Around 10 p.m. the street has turned into a parking lot. But ten toll parking lots around are almost empty.

Around Gangnam station in southern Seoul, there are so many singing rooms, which posted signs openly, reading “Sales of Alcoholic Beverage.” The owners of these karaokes well know that selling liquor is illegal, and if so, they will be subject to suspension of business and heavy fines. However, they couldn’t care less. Even some karaokes advertise their businesses, saying that young women attend on and sit at the table together, and the next ground (which means going out for sex) is possible. A karaoke owner, identified only by his (her) surname Lee, said, “It is not easy to find a karaoke which does not sell liquor. You can just say that they are company of patrons, when waitresses are found serving the patrons.“

The institution of law and order is crumbling. The phenomenon of taking the law lightly, which came to light among the revelations of high-rank officials’ corruption scandals, is recently aggravating into outright disregard of the law.

This trend is all the more rampant along with the Kim Dae-jung government’s term close to an end, when official discipline slackens and government officials do not work hard to avoid responsibility. Some government officials say that when they say, “Abide by law,” clamping down, they are confronted with responses, such as “You do first.”

In 1997 just before the start of the Kim administration, there were 191 “roomsalons,” a kind of entertaining business where liquor are sold and young female waitresses sit together at the table. But the number continued to rise, with 189 in 1998, 232 in 1999, 292 in 2000, 339 in 2001 and 363 as of October of 2002.

Meanwhile, the number of administrative measures taken against these establishments has decreased from 96 cases in 1999, 63 in 2000, 47 in 2001, and 33 cases as of now. It could be interpreted that those establishment are more likely to honor the law. But it is noted that it shows increasing collusive relations between government offices and the owners, or slackened crackdowns. A treat for 4-5 people at those establishments at a given night costs millions of won.

The Seodaemun district office waged crackdown on illegal parking in 90,900 cases last year, but the number halved to 43,000 cases during the first 10 months of 2002. The cases of illegal parking have increased, but the crackdown has fallen.

Hong Seong-bang, a law professor at Sogang University, related, “Laxity of law-abiding spirit in Korean society is due to slackened work ethics of government officials and people in high places.