Comments on: Korea’s Integrity Gap? http://www.koreasparkle.com/2008/10/koreas-integrity-gap/ News and views about Korean society and culture. Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:41:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Roboseyo http://www.koreasparkle.com/2008/10/koreas-integrity-gap/comment-page-1/#comment-151 Roboseyo Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:24:52 +0000 http://www.koreasparkle.com/2008/10/koreas-integrity-gap/#comment-151 I've thought this for a long time -- I haven't done comparative studies looking at other countries' leaders, but the newspaper headlines are enough to see that Korea's business leaders are doing a shit job of providing any kind of leadership other than "how to make a lot of money". The most shocking news story of the last year, for me, was when Lee Geon-hi, Samsung's CEO, resigned in the face of a corruption scandal: the fact he'd done enough wrong to need to resign rather than cover it up revealed a lot, but the fact that he resigned in disgrace (where probably in 1999, and definitely in 1985, a handful of well-placed bribes would have buried the whole story) also makes me think the outlook is more positive for the future. The fact that chaebols now control a smaller percentage of Korea's entire economy than before also gives me hope. Hopefully Korea figures out that, overshadowed by Japan and China on the geopolitical theater, its best shot at real clout (in my opinion) is to become a soft power leader in asia. I’ve thought this for a long time — I haven’t done comparative studies looking at other countries’ leaders, but the newspaper headlines are enough to see that Korea’s business leaders are doing a shit job of providing any kind of leadership other than “how to make a lot of money”. The most shocking news story of the last year, for me, was when Lee Geon-hi, Samsung’s CEO, resigned in the face of a corruption scandal: the fact he’d done enough wrong to need to resign rather than cover it up revealed a lot, but the fact that he resigned in disgrace (where probably in 1999, and definitely in 1985, a handful of well-placed bribes would have buried the whole story) also makes me think the outlook is more positive for the future.

The fact that chaebols now control a smaller percentage of Korea’s entire economy than before also gives me hope. Hopefully Korea figures out that, overshadowed by Japan and China on the geopolitical theater, its best shot at real clout (in my opinion) is to become a soft power leader in asia.

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