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South Korea The Civil Service
For centuries the most honored profession in Korea was
government service, which had been more or less preempted by the
scholar-official class
(see Traditional Social Structure
, ch. 2).
In modern South Korea, however, the civil service has lost some
of its earlier prestige, partly because financially rewarding
jobs have been more plentiful in private industry and commerce.
Nonetheless, the upper levels of the civil service, particularly
in the economic ministries, generally draw upon some of the besttrained and most technically competent members of the population.
Civil servants have generally enjoyed reputations as
competent and dedicated, but the proverbial corruption in the
bureaucracy has also unfairly brought disrepute to the profession
as a whole. Efforts to eliminate malfeasance have been
continuous, although they have been perhaps most pronounced (in
the fashion of traditional Chinese and Korean dynastic
succession) after the assumption of power by a new regime. The
record of reform has often been mixed. In 1980 Chun Doo Hwan
announced a far-reaching program intended to "purify" the
bureaucracy. Many South Koreans welcomed investigations of former
cabinet ministers and the confiscation of large, unexplained
fortunes from other leaders, such as Kim Chong-p'il, accused of
enriching themselves under the preceding Park Chung Hee regime.
Chun also dismissed more than 200 high officials and 1,000 lowerlevel functionaries. Political motives were clearly evident in
the ouster on vague charges of all opposition politicians of any
prominence and in the removal of public officials and staff
members of state-run corporations likely to remain overly loyal
to the late president's political machine.
The anticorruption reforms of Roh Tae Woo, marked by greater
attention to due process and broad political participation than
those of his predecessor, won considerable public support. In his
presidential campaign, Roh had joined other presidential
candidates in promising exposure of financial irregularities
under the Fifth Republic and had pledged broader disclosure of
public officials' assets through the amendment of existing laws.
The first promise was largely honored. The question of Fifth
Republic corruption was dealt with through vigorous prosecution
of former high-level officials and relatives of former President
Chun Doo Hwan charged with abuse of power or other
irregularities. The opposition parties played a major role in the
process by participating in an unprecedented series of National
Assembly hearings conducted in late 1988. These riveting
sessions, often televised, attracted millions of viewers,
emptying the streets of Seoul while the hearings were taking
place and drawing greater members even than the broadcast earlier
in the year of the Seoul Olympics. By late 1989, the courts had
tried and sentenced numerous Chun relatives and former high
officials, including a former ANSP chief, on various corruption
or influence-peddling charges.
Despite these successes, the disclosure of senior officials'
assets remained an elusive goal as the 1980s came to a close,
hampered by the lack of legal measures to penalize nondisclosure.
The National Assembly had finally passed a law concerning public
ownership of property that would require land owners to register
property in their true names, but still had not ratified a more
controversial bill that would impose stiff penalties for the
failure of assemblymen, ministers, and vice-ministerial level
officials to report their financial dealings.
The civil service is managed by the Ministry of Government
Administration. Recruitment for the most part occurs through
competitive examinations held annually in two categories,
"ordinary" and "higher" examinations. Those passing the higher
tests generally are recognized as bright and able and are loosely
known as members of the so-called higher civil service
examinations clique. They are given preference in appointment and
over the years have become the nucleus of bureaucratic elites
scattered in three major government functions--general
administration, foreign affairs, and the administration of
justice. The foreign service and judiciary are recruited through
separate examination systems that are extremely selective.
Faculty members at state universities, although selected
according to traditional academic criteria rather than solely by
examination, also are part of the civil service system, as are
those who have passed examinations to become public school
teachers.
The Constitution provides that "all public officials shall be
servants of the entire people and shall be responsible to the
people" and guarantees the political impartiality of public
officials. From the perspective of the citizen needing to do some
business in a street-level government office, however, the ethos
of service sometimes gives way to the traditional self-regard of
the official, a situation encapsulated in the traditional phrase
kwanjon minbi (respect for the official, contempt for the
people). Political neutrality also has been undercut by the
persistence of political and bureaucratic pressures on civil
servants, especially during national elections. These pressures
can be especially intense upon low-ranking officials at the
bottom of the bureaucratic chain of command and on those
officials in the upper five of the nine civil service grades who
serve as presidential appointees.
In early 1989, the number of government officials totaled
700,026, most of whom worked for the executive branch of
government. About 7,200 civil servants worked for the judiciary.
The new importance of the National Assembly under the Sixth
Republic was reflected in an increase in staff hired by the
legislative branch to some 2,700 employees--500 more than during
the final year of the preceding administration. In the 1980s,
about one-third of civil service employees worked in local
government. The civil service still represents a cross section of
society, although graduates of the so-called big three
universities, all located in Seoul, Seoul National University,
Yonse University, and Koryo University (more commonly called
Korea University in English)--continue to enjoy advantages in
gaining employment in the government as well as in the private
sector and are disproportionately represented in the higher civil
service grades.
Data as of June 1990
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