hankyoreh

0.01 percenters behaving badly: from left to right

The wildest imaginings are proving a reality. Each day brings news of the kind of shocking behavior from South Korea’s “0.1 percenters” that makes fictional movie scenes seem like documentaries. With chaebol chairmen and members of the power elite shedding anything resembling ethics, ordinary South Koreans are voicing not just anger but despair at the antics of the ones pledging to “take responsibility” for society and the future.

On July 22, hidden camera footage went public apparently showing Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee purchasing sexual services from women in the past at his home and luxury villa in Seoul’s Gangnam neighborhood. The release left many seething about the reality for other 99.9%. Mobile platforms burned up with messages about the “real-life version” of the recent hit political thriller film “Inside Men.”

Based on a webtoon serialized on the Hankyoreh’s website, “Inside Men” offers an unflinching depiction of a battle for money and power involving chaebol chairmen, politicians, a Blue House senior secretary to the president for civil affairs, prosecutors, journalists, and gangsters. In the film, a secret camera is used to capture the scene at a sex party staged at a private villa by sponsoring businessmen and members of the elite. Many viewers held out hope that South Korea’s establishment weren’t really capable of such things. The release of the prostitution footage at Lee’s home - apparently filmed to extort money - has many despairing that the movie’s plot was a real thing.

recently fired for saying 99% of South Koreans are like dogs and pigs Education Ministry Policy Planning Bureau chief Na Hyang-wook

It wasn’t all. The movie also features a Blue House senior secretary to the president for civil affairs and prosecutor exchanging favors and abusing their public authority for private ends. That subplot needed no stand-ins when it allegedly played out for real with the allegations surrounding current Blue House Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs Woo Byung-woo and senior prosecutor Jin Kyung-joon. A line from one “0.1 percenter” about the public being “dogs and pigs” became a reality when it was uttered by a senior bureaucrat, former Education Ministry Policy Planning Bureau chief Na Hyang-wook. One internet user saw real-world parallels in the fictional “Choguk Ilbo” newspaper, which colludes with the elite in the film. “The same media that splashed news about sexual assault and prostitution cases involving entertainers all over their pages won’t even report on prostitution involving major corporation chairmen,” the user said.

In case after surreal case, the truth is proving stranger than fiction: recordings showing a Blue House Senior Secretary to the President for Political Affairs and prominent politicians in the National Assembly’s pro-Park Geun-hye wing citing the “President’s will” in making nomination deals bordering on coercion ahead of the Apr. 13 parliamentary elections, or former prosecutor and attorney Hong Man-pyo leveraging his status as a former official to buy over 100 pieces of real estate.

The revelations have left many netizens and citizens wondering what is supposed to make South Korea’s ruling 0.1% so much better than the “99.9% of dogs and pigs.”

“With more and more cases of corruption under conservative administrations, there’s been a decline in the level of ethics society demands,” said Kim Dong-chun, a professor of social sciences at Sungkonghoe University, of the chronic issues of corruption and anger.

Jeon Sang-jin, a social sciences professor at Sogang University, warned that “feelings of helplessness and cynicism could intensify as people see one allegation after another of improprieties by society’s power elite.”

By Kim Nam-il and Ko Han-sol, staff reporters

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