Nearly six out of 10 Koreans believe political parties and the legislature to be the sector that is in most urgent need of anti-corruption reforms, a government poll indicated on 15 December.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) carried out a survey of 1,400 citizens, 1,400 civil servants, 700 business executives, 200 foreign residents, and 630 opinion leaders in Korea on their perceptions of corruption.

The citizens surveyed said that political parties and lawmakers are the most corrupt (58.8%) in Korean society, followed by the judiciary (29.1%), and the executive (28.1%). Civil servants, entrepreneurs, and opinion leaders also shared the view that corruption in this sector needs to be most urgently addressed.

The citizen respondents attributed the main reason for corrupt practices to "lenient punishment against corruption," while "social culture tolerant of corruption" was cited as the biggest cause of corruption by business people, foreigners, and opinion leaders.

The survey indicated that "mediation and solicitation by abuse of power" is the most common type of corruption in the Korean officialdom, followed by bribery, embezzlement and misappropriation.

Among administrative functions, architecture, construction, housing and land were considered the most corruption-prone areas along with legal affairs (prosecution, correction and immigration), police, tax affairs, and defense (military affairs).

The citizens surveyed answered that the first priority to reduce corruption is "strengthened punishment" (38.4%), followed by "improvement of laws and systems" (17.1%), and "more vigilant monitoring of corrupt conduct" (13.2%).

The ACRC commissioned Hyundai Research Institute to conduct the poll by phone and e-mail between 8 October and 7 November. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.62 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent.