Police launch special crackdown on local corruption ties
5 categories of endemic graft targeted from Sunday
Scope expanded to cover all local public-sector bodies
Police will launch a special crackdown on local corruption ties starting Sunday.
The National Investigation Headquarters of the Korean National Police Agency announced Wednesday it would begin "a full-scale, high-intensity special crackdown on five categories of local corruption, aimed at completely severing illicit privileges and rooting out every instance of local collusion."
The five targeted categories are misconduct in official duties, bribery and illicit brokering, irregular contracts and fiscal corruption, personnel irregularities, and cooperative association corruption. The crackdown will expand beyond its previous focus on local administrative bodies — including local councils, municipal governments and local public enterprises — to cover the entire local public sector, including the legal profession, the military, police, corrections, taxation, fire departments, education and cooperative associations. Authorities said they plan to investigate anyone implicated in corruption regardless of affiliation or status.
Police conducted the first phase of the special crackdown on endemic corruption from March 4 through this month. In July, the agency established a local corruption response TF at its headquarters and added 1,839 dedicated investigators at provincial and metropolitan police agencies, significantly expanding the operation.
Through the first phase, police identified and referred 1,094 local public officials and others on corruption charges. Of those, 31 were taken into custody, and criminal proceeds worth 4 billion won ($3.02 million) were traced and secured through pre-indictment confiscation and collection orders. By status, civil servants made up the largest group at 1,015 people, or 44 percent. A further 862 people, or 38 percent, affiliated with private companies were also arrested for passing along or facilitating improper requests.
Local council-related corruption accounted for a significant share of the cases uncovered. The Gangseo Police Station in Seoul arrested and referred former Gangseo-gu Council Speaker Park in April on charges of accepting 65 million won in cash and a gold necklace worth 15 million won in exchange for arranging the hiring of a special-grade civil servant at the council. The Seoul Southern District Court sentenced Park to five years in prison on Oct. 14 in a first-instance ruling on charges of aggravated bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes.
The anti-corruption unit of the Gyeonggi Province Southern Police Agency detected and referred seven employees of a local public enterprise last month who had manipulated evaluation scores after receiving improper requests to select a specific company for a municipal support project. The Chuncheon Police Station in Gangwon Province arrested two county office construction department civil servants in May for accepting 5 million won in cash from a local contractor under the guise of a promotion congratulation.
Hong Seok-gi, head of the National Investigation Headquarters, said the agency would treat the local corruption crackdown not as a one-off effort but as a core priority, pledging to continue rigorous investigations with no exceptions.
He also urged the public to come forward with tips, saying their reports are "the foundation for building a fair local community." In practice, 1,212 of the 2,288 people investigated during the first crackdown — 52 percent — were booked through complaints, petitions or investigation referrals.
Police said they will protect the identities of whistleblowers and tipsters under the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act and will actively pay reward money for information leading to arrests.
arin@heraldcorp.com
