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South Korea Purges
Chun zealously pushed his campaign to weed out corruption.
The clean-up campaign began in May 1980 when Kim Chong-p'il and
others were forced to give up their wealth and retire from
politics. In June some 300 senior KCIA agents were dismissed. In
July 1980, more than 230 senior officials, including former
cabinet officers, were dismissed on corruption charges. The ax
also fell on 4,760 low-level officials in the government,
state-owned firms, and banks, with the proviso that the former
officials not be rehired by such firms within two years. The
Martial Law Command arrested 17 prominent politicians of both the
government and opposition parties for investigation and removed
some 400 bank officials, including 4 bank presidents and 21 vice
presidents. The government also announced the dismissal of 1,819
officials of public enterprises and affiliated agencies,
including 39 (some 25 percent) of the presidents and vice
presidents of such enterprises and banks and 128 board directors
(more than 22 percent).
The "clean-up campaign" also extended to the mass media. On
July 31, 1980, the 172 periodicals that allegedly caused "social
decay and juvenile delinquency" were summarily abolished, among
them some of the finest intellectual magazines of liberal
inclination and prestigious journals for general audiences. This
action resulted in the dismissal of hundreds of journalists and
staff. The daily newspapers not affected by the purge also were
directed to weed out "corrupting"--that is, liberal writers
(see The Media
, ch. 4).
Data as of June 1990
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