SK’s latest law rewards snooping citizens
Print Edition
A pair of aspiring paparazzi staked out two weddings in Seoul’s high-end Gangnam district recently, but they weren’t looking for celebrities. Their targets were officials receiving gifts that might violate South Korea’s new anti-corruption law.
About 4 million people are estimated to be directly covered by the law — civil servants, employees at state-owned enterprises, teachers and journalists — which limits the value of meals and gifts that can be accepted.
With rewards worth up to 200 million won (US$181,000), it is also fueling a cottage industry of camera-wielding, receipt-scavenging vigilantes targeting expensive restaurants and fancy weddings in a country with a deep tradition of entertaining and gift-giving.
Some of them come for training in the art of espionage at a school that calls itself the Headquarters of Reporting for Public Good, including the two that went to the weddings.
“You can get rich and become a patriot at the same time,” school president Moon Seoung-ok told students in a recent class that included tips on using hidden cameras.
“You can pick up credit card receipts from garbage at restaurants,” Moon told his students at his classroom housed in an office near a Seoul courthouse, where he hands out booklets about the anti-graft law.
“You need to obtain evidence,” he told them.
South Korea ranked 27th among 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in the 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International.
Since the law took effect on September 28, golf course reservations have plunged and fewer guests are attending weddings, while hospitals have posted warnings against thank-you gifts, according to media reports.
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