Functioning of Government: 10 / 12
Despite government anticorruption efforts, bribery, influence peddling, and extortion persist in politics, business, and everyday life. South Korea was ranked 43 out of 175 countries and territories surveyed in Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index.
Cases of NIS tampering in domestic political affairs continue to come to light. In January 2014, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced former NIS chief Won—separately convicted for tampering with the 2012 presidential election—for accepting bribes in 2009 and 2010 from the head of Hwangbo Construction in exchange for helping the company acquire construction projects. Won was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 160 million won ($140,000).
In April 2014, an appeals court upheld a lower-court ruling that acquitted Yu Woo-sung, a North Korean defector in South Korea working for the Seoul municipal government, of spying for North Korea after an NIS agent and an NIS informant were indicted for forging documents to frame him. NIS second deputy director Suh Cheon-ho resigned as a result, and both NIS director Nam Jae-jun and President Park made public apologies for the service’s actions.
In mid-May, an estimated 50,000 people staged a candlelight vigil in Seoul to protest the Park administration’s mishandling and misreporting of the Sewol ferry incident. Protests continued throughout the summer, demanding a full investigation and accountability. At the center of the protests was a public belief that collusion between government and business were to blame for the negligence behind the accident.