Kim's anti-bribery vow is implemented quickly

President Kim has moved quickly to follow up on its pledge to stamp out corruption in the government. The president met Tuesday with his ministers at the Blue House in what was billed as an "anti-corruption meeting" and announced an audit to begin this month of stock transactions by government officials at the rank of director-general and above. Questionable transactions will be referred to the prosecution for further investigation, and beefed-up penalties will be meted out to violators.

The meeting and the announcement came a day after Mr. Kim apologized publicly for the bribery scandals that have dogged his administration recently and promised to solve the problems.

"According to the revised enforcement ordinance to the law governing wealth disclosure of government officials that went into force April 2001, government officials ranking Level I or above must report by Jan. 26 their stock transactions during the past year," said a Blue House official who insisted on anonymity. A special investigation team of officials from the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Board of Audit and Inspection will conduct the probes. It will concentrate, the Blue House official said, on signs that officials may have used official information to obtain or trade in stocks of start-up companies. It will also look for stock gifts to officials and attempted stock price manipulation.

The Blue House said there will be an "anti-corruption ministers meeting" every month, presided over by the prime minister.

The president said that government efforts to promote start-up companies, an effort he has championed strongly to create jobs and loosen the stranglehold of Korea's sprawling conglomerates, have been perverted by some officials into an opportunity for fraud or unfair competitive practices.

Because the government exercises strong controls on business activity here, some start-up companies have been found to have provided gifts of shares or cash to government officials in a position to help their new ventures grow. The extent of the scandals has dealt a blow to a president struggling to overcome the traditional loss of authority in the last year of his administration.

During the meeting, the president reportedly criticized the nation's prosecutors, saying they have not done their job properly.

by Chun Young-gi