(Unofficial translation)

Good afternoon, I am glad to see you all. My Administration’s mission is to carry out anti-corruption reform and create a fair society. We have been expanding the scope of the anti-corruption policy’s application, starting from uprooting long-accumulated evils and reforming law enforcement agencies to eradicating long-running social ills that permeate everyday life. The reform of the law enforcement apparatus is now in its final stage – enactment of relevant laws. The finalization of the legislation, including establishment of an agency to investigate crimes among senior government officials, will prevent any recurrence of such unfortunate disgrace as the influence-peddling scandal involving state affairs and will move us one step closer to making a just country where the people are the rightful owners.

On another front, we have done our utmost to stamp out irregularities and corruption in the public and private sectors and to wipe out entrenched social ills in the people’s lives with the consultative body on anti-corruption policy playing the central role. The correction of such chronic maladies as recruitment-related irregularities, abuse of power, corruption at private schools and tax evasion has transformed our society into a more transparent and cleaner one. Korea’s ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index, which once fell below 50, has bounced back to reach an all-time high. The level of integrity of public institutions has also been rising each year.

However, there’s still a long way to go. Rampant deceit and unfair privileges in every corner of our society leave people with a deep sense that their opportunities have been lost. Demands from the public for a fair society remain loud and clear.

Overhauling the anti-corruption policy consultative council today into one dedicated to a fair society manifests the Government’s strong resolve and commitment to not only rectifying corruption but also having the value of fairness take firm root across all sectors of our society. It also signifies that evasive tactics and tricks as well as unjust privileges and unfairness, even within the framework of legitimate institutions, will not be tolerated, not to mention a stern crackdown on illegal acts. 

The items on today’s agenda are urgent tasks that must be resolved to make our society fairer. Efforts by a single ministry or agency will be insufficient. These are undertakings that require government-wide collaboration to produce results. We should never be content with merely discussing them or expressing our intent. I urge you to ensure a complete break with the unfair practices of the past so that the people can sense all the drastic changes.

To achieve this, we will need to employ very intensive measures to mobilize every possible effective means. I call upon relevant ministries and agencies to work together to devise, implement and review such measures. 

It’s very meaningful that the first topic to be discussed deals with the practice of retired senior officials receiving preferential treatment from their former colleagues. This practice is one of our society’s deep-rooted injustices as it allows retired public officials to collude with their former agencies to exert extensive influence on investigations, trials and settlements in civil complaints. To build a just country, we must root it out. I ask you to realize that this practice, which has become the preserve of those with wealth and power and has caused pain and damage to ordinary people, is an anti-social act that goes against fairness and justice. I also urge you to consider its complete eradication to be the duty of the Government. Of equal import is achieving fair taxation by conducting thorough investigations into the huge, dubious financial gains that have incurred through such preferential treatment. 

Not just in the legal community, retired public officials in numerous other sectors have jeopardized not only the people’s livelihood and safety but also the defense industry and other areas directly related to national security via collusive ties with their former offices – often compromising national interests. The Government has been working hard while revising the Public Service Ethics Act, but these efforts still fall far short of public expectations. We have to resolutely implement measures that can prevent the possible formation of collusive ties between retired public officials and their former colleagues and block public officials from relying on irregularities to secure reemployment with related agencies. 

In the private education market, for instance private academic institutes, illegal and unfair practices have to be rectified. It is necessary to clearly grasp the true picture through special inspections by related ministries and agencies, and illegal activities have to be strictly punished without fail. I also urge you to do all you can to see to it that revenue is properly detected and taxed so that cram schools’ covert income does not lead to tax evasion. 

Burdens from private education expenses lead to a sense of relative deprivation, and distrust runs high over the way colleges admit students through the comprehensive screening of school records – both academic and extracurricular. Given this, the abovementioned task has to be carried out without fail to resolve the inequality in education and secure fairness in the college admission process.

Our young people desperately desire the establishment of fair hiring practices. To this end, the Government has so far made special efforts in the public sector. Through fact-finding investigations into public organizations, we have uncovered and cracked down on hiring irregularities and have taken active measures to aid victims. We will more strictly abide by the principle that recruitment irregularities are sternly punished in accordance with a zero tolerance rule.

Systematically, “blind recruitment” has been introduced at all public institutions. The selection process was changed so that applicants are evaluated only on their abilities with such factors as academic background, place of birth and family connections being excluded. Consequently, the diversity of successful candidates has expanded, and the public perception of fairness in the recruitment process and results has improved. The procedures have to be advanced further still so that a recruitment system that gives fair opportunities to everyone can take root.  

What’s most important is how those who would be affected accept the policies. I ask you to continuously supplement and improve the recruitment system until the jobseekers directly impacted consider it objective and fair. The public sector should take the lead and the private sector should make concerted efforts to ensure that a fair recruitment culture spreads throughout society. Efforts have to be made to resolve distrust and make improvements in regard to suspicions about the children of labor union members being hired through preferential treatment and other incidents considered unfair by the people. 

In particular, I would like to comment on the reform of the Prosecutors’ Office. The people’s demand for prosecutorial reform is very strong. I believe that the people are calling for a higher level of democracy, a higher degree of fairness, a higher level of transparency and a higher degree of human rights even in the exercise of government authority. Accordingly, even though the demands seem to be focusing on reforming the prosecution, other law enforcement agencies should also renew their commitment to reform, recognizing that they’re also facing the same demands.    

I believe that the Prosecutors’ Office has achieved political neutrality to a considerable extent. I hope that the prosecutors will now fulfill the next stage of reform demanded by the people as follow-up efforts.   

The role of the prosecutors in regard to fairness is always important. The task hereafter is to create a fair, anti-corruption system that cannot be shaken and to ensure that it remains in place not only under the current Prosecutor General Yoon Seok Youl but also his successors. I ask you to help secure a highly advanced system that guarantees human rights, democratic values and fairness in the process of investigating and indicting even while sternly responding to corruption. 

I consider it fortunate that the Prosecutors’ Office is actively implementing reforms on its own in the belief that it should be the principal driver of reform. I hold their efforts in high regard. However, I want to particularly stress the need for the Prosecutors’ Office to closely cooperate with the Ministry of Justice to increase the extent of the reforms so as not to end up with mere in-house reforms.