Building National Integrity Through Corruption Eradication in South Korea

Abstract

Since South Korea gained a substantial degree of political and economic development in recent history, the South Korean government has tried to eradicate corruption by introducing institutional frameworks in addition to a number of new laws and institutions. As a matter of fact, the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index score of South Korea is improving over time, but it still far behind other leading countries. The purpose of this article is to review the South Korean Government’s efforts for curbing corruption. This paper first reviews the development of major anticorruption infrastructure such as the anti-corruption legislation and the independent agency for anti-corruption in the South Korean government, followed by discussion of the development of major anti-corruption measures, the international evaluation on corruption, and the role of civil society for curbing corruption. After that, there are the policy implications and the conclusion.