» Ruling Grand National Party lawmaker Kim Sung Hoi, left, and Kim Hack Yong. On October 15 it was confirmed that both were individual recipients of illegal rice subsidies.

The government and the ruling Grand National Party on October 15 decided to make public the names of government officials who received state subsides by illegally claiming they farm rice and impose criminal penalties against them. Depending on the outcome of the investigation, it is a move that is likely to upset government officials because the number of civil servants who pocketed the rice subsidies reached some 40,000 people in 2006 alone. Late that night, It was confirmed that two ruling Grand National Party lawmakers, Kim Sung Hoi and Kim Hack Yong received rice subsidies.

In a meeting with lawmakers at the National Assembly, GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo said, “If high-ranking officials illegitimately receive rice subsidies, they won’t be qualified to be civil servants. (The government will) retrieve money from those who received the rice subsidies illegally or unfairly and punish them sternly.” He went on to say, “If anyone received rice subsidies illegally, he or she will be punished with the criminal charge of deception. What is important is the morality of civil servants. Therefore, depending on each case, some officials will face criminal punishment.”

In addition, Hong said, “According to an internal investigation of some 1,500 high-ranking officials, about three officials received rice subsidies using their own names. We will deal with the matter in a way that is favorable to farmers after an additional investigation into whether the officials received the subsidies under the names of family members.”

In a separate meeting with journalists, Hong said, “Of the some 40,000 government officials who received rice subsidies, a list of those who received them legitimately won’t be revealed, but a list of those who received the subsidies illegitimately will be announced publicly and the government will retrieve the subsidies.”

On the same day, a high-ranking official at the presidential office of the Blue House said the government will finalize the probe by the end of this week. “In a meeting with senior presidential aides (chaired by President Lee Myung-bak), there was consensus that a swift and thorough investigation of officials who (illegally) received rice subsidies should be conducted.”

The GNP urged the Board of Audit and Inspection, which conducted the initial investigation into the rice subsidies, to disclose a list of government officials who pocketed the subsidies illegally. The party says it will take steps to revise the rice-subsidy system with the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The main opposition Democratic Party also demanded the government sternly punish civil servants who illegally received rice subsidies and launch a parliamentary investigation. DP spokesman Choi Jae-sung said, “It’s the conclusion of the Democratic Party that gangbuja

(people wealthy in real estate who live in the affluent Gangnam district in Seoul) high-ranking officials who caused a great deal of pain to farmers by applying for the subsidies be identified and then punished.”

The DP is “considering asking for an aggressive parliamentary investigation” of the practice of receiving rice subsidies carried out by government officials, Choi said.

Choi said that if the government is not able to release a list of 40,000 people, which is the number of civil servants believed to have received the rice subsidies illegally, it should at least make public a list of high-ranking officials suspected of the same.

Meanwhile, some 10 representatives from a group called the “Emergency Countermeasure Committee for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries against the South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement,” an alliance of some 30 farmers’ organizations that includes the Korean Peasants League and the Korean Advanced Farmers Federation, held a press conference in front of the government complex in Gwacheon earlier in the day. At the press conference, the group called for the government to disclose a list of high-ranking officials who illegally received or applied for rice subsidies; it submitted its official request after the press conference. In addition, the group demanded the government fire all of the related officials and called on Lee Bong-hwa, the vice minister of health, welfare and family affairs, to make a public apology.

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