ABSTRACT
Corruption is seen as an essential aspect of government and business (especially big business or chaebols) relations in the Republic of Korea (Korea, hereafter). In part, this is, as this chapter points out, because corruption in government– business relations is not new. Since Korea’s independence in 1948, it has taken various forms including bribery, cronyism, patronage, extortion, nepotism. While successive governments in Korea sought to remove corruption between government and business, no leader or ruling party since 1948 to date has escaped being tarnished by corruption.
