Can gov't root out defense industry corruption?

The 3,500-ton Navy salvage ship Tongyeong sails off the coast of Busan on Nov. 26. The Navy and the shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering conducted test operations to see if the vessel's equipment, except for its sonar, worked properly. Its out-of-date sonar was one of the latest examples of corruption involving the defense industry. / Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

Tensions are running high in the military and at the defense ministry after the government recently launched a joint investigation team of prosecutors, military officers and government officials to root out corruption in the nation's defense industry.

The special team, launched on Nov. 21, is the largest of its kind, and is composed of 105 members from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, the Ministry of National Defense, National Police Agency, National Tax Service, Korea Customs Service, Financial Supervisory Service, and Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation.

The team will be headed by Kim Ki-dong, an experienced senior prosecutor who heads the Goyang District Prosecutors' Office in Goyang, just north of Seoul. He is noted for his recent investigation into a web of corruption within the nation's nuclear energy industry that resulted in the indictment of about 100 people including a former vice president of the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).

The team held a ceremony to officially launch the special investigation that is headquartered at the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office in southern Seoul. Prosecutor General Kim Jin-tae said, "The team will devote all its resources to rooting out deals that involve chronic corruption in the defense industry so that the people can be at ease with a national defense service run at the level of an advanced country."

The public are showing expectations that the government will eradicate the long-practiced and deeply-rooted corruption, which President Park Geun-hye has denounced as "actions that serve the interests of the enemy."

However, despite such rising expectations among the public, some watchers have expressed concern that the investigation could only end up "cutting off the tail" of a much larger behemoth of corruption. They cite, among other aspects, that military-related issues require a high degree of professionalism.

Prosecutor General Kim Jin-tae, fifth from left, and investigators hold a sign hanging ceremony to officially launch a joint investigation team of prosecutors, military officers and government officials to root out corruption involving the nation's defense industry. / Yonhap

Kim Jong-dae, a military commentator and the chief editor of Defense 21 Plus, a monthly military magazine, told reporters that launching a special team was a good start, but what the results will be remains to be seen.

"Although Prosecutor Kim Ki-dong is a professional investigator, the mission will not be easy without the cooperation and help of professional manpower in the arms procurement area. Arms issues are much more complicated than nuclear energy-related issues," he said.

The inter-departmental drive to conduct investigations into irregularities involving defense contractors comes amid growing allegations of bribery and other underhand dealings between military officials and defense firms. They also include cozy relations between the arms procurement agency and retired service personnel hired by private defense companies.

One of the latest examples involved the first domestic-made rescue and salvage ship, the 3,500-ton Tongyeong. A former Navy officer was indicted on Oct. 19 on charges of forging a document for the selection of a sonar system for the vessel, when he was in charge of selecting a supplier on behalf of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

The vessel that cost 160 billion won ($146 million) was launched in September 2012, but failed to take part in the rescue operation after the Sewol ferry sank in April because the sonar system was outdated. 295 passengers died during the deadly ferry sinking.

The team's first task will be to expand an ongoing probe into corruption linked to the faulty Navy ship. The Army's malfunctioning K-11 assault rifles and K-2 tanks were also included among the targets, said prosecutors.

Then, the team plans to extend the scope of the investigation to other suspicions raised during the National Assembly inspection in October. Lawmakers cited a total of 47 alleged cases of corruption involving the defense industry.

But corruption within the military is not just recent phenomena. Cases began to emerge under the military regimes of former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo from the early 1980s through to the 1990s when the nation attempted to enhance its military capabilities through a program of modernization beginning with the Yulgok Project initiated in 1974 under late President Park Chung-hee with the aim of strengthening the nation's military capabilities. This ended in 1986 during President Chun Doo-hwan's administration.

The administration of former President Kim Young-sam who led the first civilian government from 1993 made the first attempt to uncover corruption involving arms procurement. This was previously regarded as a safe haven for corruption during the military regimes. The results of the Kim government's probe were shocking; investigators uncovered 118 incidents of corruption involving the Yulgok Project and arrested two former defense ministers and two other generals.

Watchers expect that the current investigation underway by the largest-ever such team could uncover corruption on an even bigger scale than that involving the Yulgok Project.

Prosecutors plan to focus on digging up any attempts by personnel to leak military secrets about weapons acquisition plans, any bribes accepted, forging of documents and the identification of any mutually beneficial relations between retried soldiers employed at defense industry and active soldiers at the DAPA.

For their part, the Board of Audit and Inspection also formed a separate monitoring team and the National Intelligence Service created a special team to feed information to the joint task force, said the prosecutors.

However, Kim Jong-dae commented that the investigators during the Kim Young-sam government were able to achieve results because they tried to get to the bottom of corruption by scrutinizing the decision-making process before all weapons were put into production, as well as probing faulty practices involving testing, evaluation and supply contracts.

"The current investigation seems to be only focused on the process of bidding on contracts, supplying and delivering arms. But this narrow approach might only result in cutting off the tail of the beast, because the main body of it was apparently involved in a decision-making process that decided which weapons the military needed," he said. "Usually, plans to give advantages to certain equipment manufacturers were already made in the initial decision making."

Kim added that the team should try to apprehend the "big thieves".

Kim Dae-young, a senior research fellow of the Korea Defense and Security Forum, expressed similar concerns.

"Trillions of won are invested in projects to improve the nation's defense capabilities. But there are only about 10 people in the DAPA who make these decisions," he said, also indicating that the biggest problem of the recurrent corruption is the decision-making process.

Kim also pointed out that the investigation cannot solve the endemic problem of corruption, but government-level efforts are also necessary to end malpractices and irregularities in arms acquisition process.

"The government needs to set up an educational institution to nurture civilian experts about the process of military procurement and reinforce manpower in the DAPA," he said.

Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye