hankyoreh

staff photographer)

During the cabinet meeting held at the Blue House on Mar. 17, President Park Geun-hye called for a sweeping assault on corruption in all areas of society, not only the areas that prosecutors have been investigating of late.

After Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo released a public statement on Mar. 12 in which he vowed to eradicate corruption and graft, now President Park has come forward herself to announce an intense period of investigations.

During the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Park extensively employed vehement rhetoric as she called for the investigations to have meaningful results.

“Now as never before we must identify the roots of irregularities and bring to light the clumps of corruption that are wrapped up in those roots,” Park said. “Stern measures need to be taken in regard to the chronic corruption that has built up in all areas of society.”

Adm. Hwang Ki-chul

The remarks appear to reflect a sense of crisis that a failure of this investigation campaign, which Park deliberately initiated at the beginning of her third year in office, could severely reduce her administration’s momentum.

Park also referred directly and indirectly to ongoing investigations by prosecutors into corruption in the defense industry, professional negligence in overseas resource development, and slush funds at large corporations, calling for all these issues to be investigated thoroughly.

“Since the special audit team and joint investigation team into corruption in the defense industry were launched in Nov. 2014, they have uncovered a variety of irregularities related to contracts for procuring weapons for the army. These findings have been very shocking and disappointing for the public,” Park said.

“These irregularities are long-standing, deep-rooted problems. They are serious crimes that mortgage the lives and safety of the public to satisfy private interests and desires.”

“We cannot ignore corrupt practices that endanger public safety, squander tax revenues, and distort fair corruption and compensation with the excuses that people have always acted this way or that they are an inevitable part of conducting business,” Park added.

who last month resigned as Chief of Naval Operations arrives at Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul’s Seocho district for questioning as part of a criminal investigation into alleged Defense Acquisition Program Administration corruption regarding the Tongyeong salvage ship

One reason that Park has come forward to make a strong pitch for eradicating corruption could be that the governing conditions have been gradually improving. After she returned from a recent trip to the Middle East, Park’s approval rating bounced back to the 40% range.

Since shuffling of the cabinet and the Blue House advisors - and since the hearings for her new appointments were wrapped up without any major controversy - Park appears to have her moxie back.

When explaining why corruption must be eradicated on Tuesday, Park said, “With the people tightening their belts and making a backbreaking effort, diverting taxpayers’ money to feed personal greed is a crime that we cannot tolerate.” Her contrast of “the people” and “crime” also appears to reflect this mood.

By Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]