South Korea moved down in an international corruption awareness ranking for the third straight year in 2013.
The country fell one notch to 46th place among 177 nations surveyed, according to the 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by the Transparency International (TI) Tuesday. South Korea scored 55 out of 100.
South Korea ranked 39th in 2009 and 2010, but dropped to 43rd in 2011, 45th in 2012 and 46th in 2013.
It means that the nation’s CPI has fallen seven notches for the past three years.
TI Korea said the fall has been caused largely by irregularities involving those in power, apparently referring to corruption scandals such as a high-profile one involving officials of the state-run operator of nuclear power plants.
It said that the country has taken “few appropriate steps to fight corruption.”
TI Korea called for, among others, reviving an independent anti-corruption state agency, establishing a body to investigate irregularities in officialdom and strengthening surveillance on corruption among privileged people.
Denmark and New Zealand shared the top spot in the TI’s 2013 CPI with a score of 91, the annual TI report said.
Singapore ranked fifth with 86 points, while Japan placed 18th with 74.
Slovenia placed 43rd with a score of 57 and China, 80th with 40.
North Korea, Somalia and Afghanistan tied for last place, 175th, with 8 points.
