The Legislature and Political Parties Are Most Corrupt in Korea

The Korean public reportedly perceives the political circle as the most corrupt institution in society. According to the “TI Global Corruption Barometer 2004” of 50,000 respondents from 64 countries conducted and released on December 9 by the Transparency International (TI), Koreans (some 1,500 surveyed) gave a score of 4.5 to the legislature and 4.4 to political parties, rating the political arena most affected by corruption.

TI conducted a worldwide survey in June and July on a scale from a corrupt-free of 1 to an extremely corrupt score of 5.

In particular, the Korean legislature was rated as the second most corrupt in the world following its Argentinean counterpart, with a score of 4.6. The scores are much higher compared to 1.6 in Singapore, 3.2 in the U.S., and 3.7 in Japan.

The institutions regarded as most corrupt next to the legislature and political parties turned out to be the police (3.8), customs (3.7), the judiciary and the press (3.6), and the education system (3.5). Religious bodies also ranked higher than the world’s average of 2.7, with a score of 3.1.

In contrast, the utilities and registry and permit services sectors recorded 2.5 respectively, which is lower than the world’s average of 3.0. This demonstrates the general public’s relatively higher confidence in administrative services.

Jin-Kyun Kil leon@donga.com