Breaking ranks: A new tone for Korea’s bureaucracy?

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Breaking ranks: A new tone for Korea’s bureaucracy?

Published: 10 Jun. 2025, 00:05

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Kim Gyeoul

The author is a writer and a book YouTuber.

For the past week, it has been difficult to look away from the constant flow of breaking news. Many in Korea are feeling the same. Watching the updates unfold, it has become clear that the country stands at a turning point. The question now is whether Korea can move past the recent upheaval and rebuild a stronger democratic community. That transformation will take time. The prolonged struggles of impeachment and the presidential election have already tested the nation’s patience. Waiting a bit longer is no great burden.

What stood out in recent headlines was not a moment of catharsis, but a small gesture by President Lee Jae-myung. According to local reports, during a briefing with working-level officials of an emergency economic task force, President Lee shared his personal phone number and encouraged them to offer input regardless of rank or title. It was a symbolic break from the rigid command structures that have long defined Korea’s public sector.

"The Lie That We Work for the Nation" (2024) by Noh Han-dong. [Sideways Publishing Company]

This development resonated especially after reading “The Lie That We Work for the Nation” (2024), a memoir by Noh Han-dong, who served in the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for a decade. His account paints a stark portrait of bureaucratic life: a system driven by rigid hierarchy rather than dialogue, obsessed with formatted summaries over field complexity and dismissive of those who attempt to cut budgets on their own initiative.

Noh describes a bureaucracy where civil servants must master what he calls “clever incompetence” to survive. He portrays an institutional culture that is structurally irrational and unwilling to acknowledge or correct itself from within.

These challenges are not new. They are well-known limitations of bureaucracies, especially in central ministries with wide mandates. Yet there is some reason for cautious hope. President Lee has served in a range of public offices — as mayor, governor, lawmaker and now head of state — and has witnessed the machinery of government from multiple angles. The expectation is not that he will dismantle bureaucracy, but that he might manage to preserve its strengths while loosening its rigidities.

Encouraging open discussion, tightening oversight and leading by example — such efforts may offer public service a new direction. Korea faces too many urgent issues to leave its administrative structures untouched.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.